Story 47: The dog days of high school

      

  I grew up on Long Island, and one of my best friends I met when I was in ninth grade named Dan.  Dan and his sister Stephanie had a little black Scottie named Muffin.  Muffin was a very cute dog, but always seemed to have a knack for getting in trouble. Stephanie even more so.

     One time Stephanie took a magazine subscription card and filled it out in Muffin's name.  I think it was for Dog Fancy or Better Homes and Gardens, but I really don't remember which one. Every month the magazine would be delivered to "Muffin."
    

      When the subscription was over Muffin would get letters saying to the effect, "Dear Muffin have you considered renewing?" or "We miss you Muffin."  Eventually Muffin got on other mailing lists, and got offers to reduce her debt, obtain new credit cards, and timeshares in Florida.  Every time she got a new letter we had a big laugh.  Muffin was famous we said.  Little did we know how true that would be.

       A well known dog photographer, not William Wegman, loved to photograph Scotties.  When he saw Muffin he fell in love with her. He actually sent a limousine to pick her up, and she appeared in a book about Scotties.

       Speaking of books. While Muffin liked being in the book she had a propensity for eating them too. I remember one time when we were in high school Dan and I were sitting on the floor in his room, and he had inadvertently left a few textbooks on the ground.  Muffin always liked to play tug of war, and Dan looked up with concern to find her with a copy of his English book A Town Like Alice in her mouth.  Now Dan and I positively hated the book, but neither of us wanted to pay for a new one.

       "Muffin, no." Dan tried calmly. "Give me the book."

         Muffin looked at Dan with her small black eyes and shook her head slowly back and forth like someone saying no.

         "Muffin." Dan tried again.

          Muffin was not going to let go of the book without a fight, and then just when he thought he got her she darted into the other room and hid under the bed.  Dan looked underneath and Muffin had  the book firmly in her mouth.  Dan finally got the book back but the cover was ripped off.

       "What am I going to tell Mr. Mack?" he asked me.

       "It's a dog-eat dog-world?" I said tentatively.

        "More like dog eat book world." he replied.

         "Well, she certainly has a 'taste' for bad literature." I said with a laugh.

and with that we went back to playing Intelivision football not worrying about homework or school. Muffin watched the screen and probably dreamed of becoming a cover star.

Life Lesson 47: Every dog has it's day, but in Muffin's future eyes that day was every day.