(Note to readers:  Last weekend our beagle-basset mix Bea — occasionally known as Crazy Dog as some longtime readers will recall — gave us quite the fright.  She escaped from the back yard, was gone for hours and eventually ended up in the Animal Shelter.  I thought you may like to hear about the adventure as Bea would perhaps have written it.  Joe Darby)

Well!  All I wanted was to go to WalMart to check out their chewy toys and I ended up in serious trouble.

Let me begin, well if not at the beginning, at the middle.  Generally I have a happy life.  We have a big backyard full of squirrels as well as some of those pesky little pocket gophers and I love to chase them.  The Boss and the Boss Lady are good to me, as you might guess from my somewhat fat tummy.  And the other dogs in our pack — Mosby and Katie — treat me as one of their own, which I suppose I am by now, having lived with them for about four years.

As I said, I live a good life but I’ve always been an adventurous girl and like to live on the edge.  I noticed not too long ago that if I pushed hard on the bottom of the gate in our wife fence, it would give.

So, I said to myself, it’s a slow day, no squirrels about — I think I’ll go shopping.  I knew that Boss Lady talks about WalMart and buys things there, so I thought I’d go there and check out their doggie toys.

It was a much longer walk than I thought it would be, I can tell you!  And it was darned hot too.

(Note to readers:  How Bea survived walking along Keyser Avenue for almost a mile seems almost a miracle.  That’s the heaviest traveled street in our town but she made it there safely.  And I suppose some kind soul saw her and called the Animal Shelter and that’s where she ended up.  Joe.)

Now that Boss has had his say, I’m not going to talk about what happened on my way to WalMart, what happened when I got there or how I was arrested for vagrancy and brought to the doggie jail.  There are some things that Boss, Boss Lady and you don’t need to know!

Suffice it to say, I ended up at the Animal Shelter.  They were quite kind there, but they had to put me in a cage and I was scared.  This was certainly not the doggie department at WalMart!  I noticed that the National Guard headquarters was next door.  I hoped that some handsome soldier would come rescue me, but no!

Well, the Boss called upon Mr. Meziere, the top dog (really the top man) at the Animal Shelter and he very kindly consented to meet Boss and Boss Lady at the shelter.  Boss had to sign me out and they have papers on my “arrest” so now I have a record — a good, sweet innocent girl like me.

I must admit I was rather overjoyed to see Boss and Boss Lady pull up in their car.  I was certainly ready to go.

So, all’s well that end’s well, right?  Boss Lady wired up the fence, but I’m sure next time I feel the urge to shop until I drop, I can find some way to accomplish my goal.