Today I finally broke down and dropped Daisy, an eighty-pound ball of skunk-scented fluff, off at Petco for a bath. I can’t say the groomer looked especially happy to see us. Just before leaving, I said most apologetically, “Sorry to stink the whole place up!”

It was the first time I ever had to use that closing line, and hopefully, the last.

At the end of Bushy Hill Road is a sign with a picture of a white Maltese reading “LOST:  SCHMOOPEY.  REWARD!”  It’s just a theory, but I have to wonder if some of these lost pets are really so lost after all. How much crap do you suppose Schmoopey tolerated from neighborhood dogs Butch, Spike and Killer before he finally packed his bags? Run, Schmoopey, run!