This is Deputy Digby Pancake.  I am always one to sing the Sheriff’s praises…because he tells me to.  I am also one to tell the Sheriff when his leadership abilities should be worked on.  Actually, I usually do that under my breath and he doesn’t hear me.  My very. Bad. Breath.  But this past weekend, well, not only was I singing the Sheriff’s praises, but I also wrote his probation report in the same hour.  I can multi-task, even when pancakes and maple syrup are not involved.  Trust me.

Because I know about trust, y’all.  You can trust that the sun will come up every morning.  You can trust that the sky will be blue.  You can trust that I will have rolled in something I should have not each day.  You can trust I will always find unmentionable things to dig up and eat on the trails.  But you can also trust that I will always have a good day.  You can trust that I always like to drive, no matter what day of the week it is.

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But in my short nine years of being Deputy Digby Pancake, I myself can trust that I never know what the day will bring. I trust that at the end of the day, well, you have to be content when you can end it with the ones you love. No matter what happened during that day.  Even if Girl Person almost gets hurt and Sheriff Brickle almost gets hurt worse.

And this Saturday, I appreciated that more than ever.  The day started off just fine, avoiding alligators and the such in this Florida place.  I will tell you more about that tomorrow, by the way.  My multi-task is being all used up at the moment. Trust me though.  I’ll get back to it.

On Saturday, as Girl Person was briefing us on the next day’s activities, she realized that the car needed gas.  We were all really hot here in this Florida place.  Really.  Hot.  And even I could tell, after our long hike avoiding alligators, that Girl Person needed a nap or something.  She wasn’t even paying attention to the Scarey Blue Jean Man Person walking up behind her…around the gas pump.  She was trying to hurry the gas filling situation, watching the pump spin around like a Las Vegas slot machine.  I have been to Las Vegas.  I know.  I also know that she had just about a good of a chance at wining at the gas pump.  Trust me.

But as I watched the Scarey Blue Jean Man Person get closer and closer, I started to become worried myself.  What was he doing?  What did he want?  And when I get worried, that is a cause for concern.  The Sheriff was already on it, but the doors were locked, Girl Person was in her own world, and the Sheriff knew he had to do it.  He had to be the Sheriff.  Immediately.  Loudly.  Forcefully.

As the Scarey Blue Jean Man Person started to talk to Girl Person, I noticed he had no car.  He had no reason to talk to her.  And he had no reason to be afraid…until the Sheriff became the Sheriff.

As the Scarey Blue Jean Man Person got closer, Sheriff Brickle lunged at him, growled, barked.  He pulled everything out of his Sheriff hat that he had.  The Scarey Blue Jean Man Person I could tell, had not even known he was there until it was too late, and I can only imagine he was running to the bathroom as he was running away.

As you can imagine, Sheriff Brickle was proud of himself, and Girl Person was a little shook up.  And not in a good way either.

Girl Person didn’t wait to jump in the car, and as she sped away, she forgot the gas cap.  Now, in the big scheme of things, a gas cap is only a gas cap.  In fact, it doesn’t even deserve to be mentioned in the big scheme of things.  But persons need such things to keep cars running good to take me to IHop, so she texted Boy Person that he needed to go buy one on his way home from soccer.  It had been a long day.  It was still almost 90 degrees at 7 o’clock at night, and we were all tired.  At least I thought that we were all tired…

As Girl Person thanked Sheriff Brickle for about the millionth and fifth time for protecting her at the gas station and scaring away the Scarey Blue Jean Man Person, I saw a look in his eyes.  He was not punching out on the time clock yet.  He saw Tommy cat in the distance.

And just as Girl Person was putting his leash on, he pushed her out of the way and jumped out of the car.  Literally. Nope. I didn’t do it this time.  Not me!

Now, if you know Girl Person, and you might know her a little, you know that in situations like this, she loses all decorum.  She loses all sense of loudness and civility.  She instead chooses to scream so loud that people on the other side of the world can hear her.  And in this particular scenario, I can’t say that I blamed her as I watched helplessly from inside.  You see, Memaw Macaw lives on a very busy road, with a lot of traffic and people driving too fast.  And Girl Person feared the worst.  She knew the worst was about to happen.  And all she could do was run and scream so loud that Memaw Macaw ran out of the house in her pajamas chasing Girl Person thru the backyard too. You see, Tommy cat had instead decided to run away from the road.  And this was the best thing that could have happened.  As he ran up the tree, the Sheriff hit a speed trap on his pursuit, and Girl Person was able to catch him.  Just. In. Time.

Girl Person grabbed the Sheriff like I grab a bite of pancakes off a fork.  If I used a fork. Which I don’t have time for.  But you get the idea.  She ushered him inside with Memaw Macaw asking every question she could think of in her pajamas which I might add was not an appropriate time of day for pajamas, but who am I to judge when in fact pancakes are breakfast, you eat breakfast in pajamas, and so maybe we should all wear them all day.  But anyway.  Girl Person lost her sense of not crazy again, started crying about gas caps and Scarey Blue Jean Man Monsters and cats up trees.  And I trusted that she may in fact be losing it.

I trusted my instincts on that one.  It had simply been a ruff day.  A hot, ruff day with scariness and drama.  Yet, Girl Person decided to stop.  She looked at me, she looked at Brickle.  She looked at herself.  And she called Boy Person who calmed her down, simply asked if everyone was ok, and then asked how many bottles of wine we had.

They say that all is well that ends well.  And it was that simple.  Our day may have been filled with things that we wanted to forget.  But we wouldn’t forget the lessons.  Girl Person learned that she had to be more aware of who and what was around her.  She also was reminded that our leashes were not to be taken off ever, unless we were safely inside. Sheriff Brickle learned that Tommy Cat is faster than him on any day, even with his sirens on.  Tommy Cat learned that he couldn’t meow at the Sheriff all day and cross his path and tease him anymore.  And we all learned that we can’t always control what happens in our day, but if we are safe and together at the end of it, that is all that matters.

If there is one thing in this world that we trust, it is our love for each other. We would give our lives for each other, and in the span of an hour, that almost happened.  As Gandpa once said, “never think you got it licked”. You see, even though we have traveled across the country five times, and have been on adventures, too many to count, things can happen in an instant.  No matter where you are, or who you are.  Never think that something can’t happen to you.  Tomorrow is never guaranteed.  You can trust me on that one.

-Deputy Digby Pancake

P.S. Girl Person will be headed to the NBC studios on Tuesday to film a cooking segment for dogs that will air on Thursday.  Stay tuned for more information!

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