How hot was it Sunday?
Our German shepherd, Shilo, voluntarily went inside.
I know!
Shilo spends most of her free time indoors. Well, actually, all of Shilo’s time is free time. I mean, what else does she have to do?
During the week, Shilo starts each day by going out with me to get the paper. First, we walk over to our neighbor’s yard, pick up her paper and place it on her porch, and then we walk back to our yard and pick up our paper. And when I say “we,” I don’t mean Shilo. While I’m getting the papers, Shilo is busy scanning the neighborhood for rabbits and squirrels.
You know those crime shows where two police officers burst into a room to make sure there are no bad guys inside, and then go back to the door and tell everyone else that it’s safe to enter?
That’s the way Shilo helps me get the papers. I open the door, and Shilo bursts through and checks for rabbits or squirrels. If the coast is clear, Shilo runs back to let me know that it’s safe. If the coast is not clear, Shilo doesn’t run back. Instead, she runs after the rabbit or squirrel, forcing me to wander the neighborhood yelling her name until she decides to call off her rabbit or squirrel pursuit and return to the yard. When I get back to our yard, I usually find Shilo sitting in the grass with an expression on her face that clearly says, “What?”
After we get the papers, Shilo follows me inside and waits while I pour a cup of coffee. When I finish pouring the coffee into a travel mug, Shilo barks and starts turning around in circles. Then I clip her leash on her and we go for a walk.
And that’s pretty much the extent of Shilo’s day. The rest of her time is spent lying on the floor, checking her food bowl and chasing one of the cats. However, on weekends, Shilo’s world expands a bit. She gets to spend more time in our backyard. Sometimes I’m in the backyard with Shilo, and sometimes I’m not. For the record, Shilo doesn’t particularly care if I’m with her. She seems just as happy with me in the yard as without me. For Shilo, being outside is the key to happiness.
On Sunday afternoon, I let Shilo outside with me while I did yardwork. Well, I started to do yardwork, but then I decided it was too hot for any sort of work, so I sat down in the shade underneath a ceiling fan and sipped a beer while I waited for the St. Louis Cardinals game to begin on the radio. A little while later, my wife came outside and noticed that Shilo was in the yard with me. My wife hates it when Shilo is in the yard. According to my wife, Shilo is “annoying” when she’s in the yard.
“Make Shilo go inside,” my wife said to me as Shilo tried to get my wife to take a slobber-drenched ball from her mouth. (I should clarify here: The slobber-drenched ball was in Shilo’s mouth, not my wife’s.)
I told my wife that if she wanted Shilo to go inside, she could tell her. My wife said a bad word, and then she told Shilo to go inside.
I laughed. See, Shilo never does anything my wife tells her to do, and since I knew Shilo didn’t want to go inside, I knew my wife was wasting her time.
Then something astonishing happened: Shilo went inside, pretty much on her own.
What this proves, I think, is that Shilo has enough sense to know when it’s too hot to be outside. I, on the other hand, thought it was smart to sit outside in triple-digit heat and listen to a baseball game on the radio.
But, at least I can fetch a newspaper.
DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA for Mike Pound’s column? Call him at 417-623-3480, ext. 7259, or email him at mpound@joplinglobe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mikepoundglobe.
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