This is Deputy Digby Pancake.  Have you ever wanted something so bad and not wanted something so bad at the same time?  Like you really want that stack of pancakes, but you do not want that imitation maple syrup that someone put on top?  Yeah, kinda like that!  That is the kind of day that I had yesterday here in this Georgia place.  Specifically, Tybee Island, Georgia.

The persons decided that we would take a drive out to see a fort.  I like forts.  Forts usually have it all.  Lots of grass and things to look at and history to learn about.  This was one called Fort Pulaski.  And it was really big and really dog friendly.  Being friendly to dogs is always a plus in our book.

Now, as much as I like history, I also like to not have bugs bite my butt.  As much as I like learning, I also like not to almost fall off a wall getting away from said bug trying to bite my butt.  This Georgia place seems to have many bugs that want to bite you.  And after a week of fighting said bugs biting my butt, I had had it.  What “it” is, I don’t know, but I had it.  Chasing my butt.  So I decided that the only thing I needed to do was run. Run far away from this Fort. Named Pulaski.

Now, when you want to run from a bug, you decide that if you are a foxhound like me, you will try to escape.  Many people ask Girl and Boy Person why I have a harness like this on all the time.  Well, it was because of times like this.  As I tried to pull away, and the crowds looked on like I was part of some reenactment, the persons tried to calm me down.  Girl Person thought if her and Brickle walked into the Fort that I would want to follow.  So Boy Person had kind of a pep talk with me.  I tried to listen, but not really.  All I could hear were the sounds in my mind of that dern bug.

But I have been on many adventures in my life.  And I decided that maybe, I would just follow Sheriff Brickle and Girl Person into the Fort.

Maybe there were no bugs in there trying to get my butt.  So I tried to pull it together as Girl Person showed me what they used to cook with back in the day.  I kept thinking, “pancakes, pancakes, pancakes”.  No bugs.  No.  No bugs.

But sometimes, when something is bothering you, it is hard to stop thinking about it.  Even when we climbed to the top of the Fort, I was wondering how many bugs would be up there.  I couldn’t even think about the pancakes that they used to make here.  I couldn’t even appreciate the view.  No, I had a one track mind stuck on one song.  Getting out of here.

No matter what the persons tried to do, I just wanted to go.  Girl Person asked me nicely if I wanted to take a trail to a lighthouse.  Boy Person asked me.  Brickle told me.  And as we all started walking to it, it happened.  I snapped one last time.  I could see our car in the distance, and all I wanted to do was just get in it!  I pulled as hard as I could.  Harder than one of Granny Person’s biscuits she used to make.  That didn’t work.  Boy Person was still trying to get me to go.  All I knew to do was one last thing.  I had never tried it before.  But I had to do it.  I looked up at Boy Person.  I tried to get him to look in my eyes to know that I was freaking out.  I just could not go.  I just could not do it.  I begged him with my eyes to please let me go home.  And then it happened.  It worked.

Boy Person told Girl Person and Sheriff Brickle that I just didn’t want to go.  He said there was no way we were going after I looked at him like that.  And there was no hesitation.  They all decided that it was best we did not go on the trail.  It was getting hot, I had used up too much energy trying to leave, and there was breakfast waiting at home.  Girl Person told Brickle that there would be many more trails for us all to go on together, but it would have to be another day.

I felt a little bad at first because I spoiled the fun.  But the persons talked about it and said that this was just the way it was.  They said that Brickle and I, and what we want to do and what we can do is the important thing, not the pictures we couldn’t take.

As I have gotten a little older, I have noticed more aches and maybe less days where I feel like hiking on long trails.  I notice that things like bugs bother me a little bit more.  I can’t focus as good and I get scared a lot of storms. Girl Person says that’s ok.  No one feels good every single day, but on the days that we do, we should take advantage of them.  Life is not about getting the best pictures, but having the best times.  It is also about being understanding to others when they just can’t do something, or when they don’t want to do something. Because we may want someone to show us that same understanding on another day when they don’t feel quite so well.

I know that no one truly understood how I felt, because I really didn’t.  Girl Person says stuff like that is called panic attacks sometimes.  I would rather have a pancake attack any day than that.  But as we drove through the area of Tybee Island and simply had fun looking and talking and laughing, I knew that in the end, this was better than any picture.  This was better than three being happy and one being sad.  We were all happy together because we worked together.  And when you find a family like that, well, you protect it.  Just like if you were at a Fort.

-Deputy Digby Pancake

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