Just tell me where to mail it

My sister got a new puppy last month - a gorgeous Labrador Retriever named Shadow:





My family has used the same veternarian since I was 7 years old. So my sister didn't even think twice about where to take the puppy for his first appointment.

I think it always takes our vet by surprise to see us in his office. We must perpetually live on as those same little children in his head. Then we show up with our own pets and families, plus our own checkbook to pay for the visit. It has to be startling him to spin the years by that quickly.

I called my sister to chat today. She was in the backyard with the puppy and my nephew, trying to get the dog to finish his business before they spent the afternoon trapped inside by tornadoes. I could hear my nephew whooping & hollering the background, and every so often, my sister would stop to tell him it was not okay to feed the puppy those rocks. Or to throw the rocks over the fence. Or to run with the rocks. In general, he should leave the rocks alone entirely. You get the idea.

Anyway, my sister told me that the vet and my brother-in-law had hit it off at the appointment. They talked big truck tires and enjoyed every minute of it.

Today, the vet called her to check on him. (the puppy, not my brother-in-law.)

My sister said, "Want a dog?"

Apparently Shadow was all a-twitter with the approaching severe weather, and was making a complete ninny of himself in the backyard. He was nipping at my nephew, he was running away from my sister, and he was doing everything EXCEPT the specific item on the agenda he was there to do.

When you throw in a rowdy little boy who was guilty of aiding and abetting the puppy, I had one very frazzled sister on the phone.

I think if the vet had called 15 minutes later, he would have gotten a free toddler, too.