Grab-n-Go: Dogged Determination

The great puppy caper

When my sister, Nancy, was nine, she hounded our parents to let her get a puppy.

They nixed her request; we already had two cats, at Nancy’s behest.

Guess who never cleaned the litter box.

One Sunday, en route home after having visited my grandmother, we stopped at a rest area.

A man in the parking lot was giving away a litter of brown-and-black mottled pups of indeterminate parentage. Back in the day, dogs were unleashed and unneutered.

Nancy snatched one of the pups, ran back to our car, and locked herself in. In the manual era of the mid-sixties, cars could be locked from the inside.

She pressed down on the pop-up button; our parents couldn’t turn the key.

They banged on the door, yelling at Nancy to give the pup back before the man took off.

After five minutes of their pounding, Nancy opened the door, pup in arms, smirk on her face, as we watched the man drive away.

Guess who never walked the dog.