Please note, every year on our wedding anniversary, January 8, we take the day off to spend together as a family. The blog will return Thursday!

This is Deputy Digby Pancake. Some things can stop you right in your tracks. The smell of pancakes. Or bacon. Or any food.

Maybe it’s good news that makes you stop and smile. Maybe it’s something unexpected. Like what happened when Sheriff Brickle decided to walk on a sea wall and cause a scene. He said he always makes a scene with his beach body. But he outdid himself.

Let me start by filling you in on some facts about this Florida place. First, if you are outside, expect to have bugs, snakes and more bugs as company. Then, watch your step. Because it’s more than likely you will step on a few things the persons call sand spurs. But I prefer to call them treat magnets. Because even if you don’t step on one and hold up your paw, you will get an “awwwww, are you ok?” And a treat.

So as we were taking our walk among the treat magnets and bugs, we walked up on an armadillo.

Yes, another fellow who likes this Florida place. Sheriff Brickle saw him first, I saw him second, and as we pulled Girl Person down the trail, the armadillo ran in the bushes. With us all in a sea of leashes. And thorns. And treat magnets. Girl Person exclaimed we had better settle down because we had to get back for her to go to the store and get groceries.

Too many treat magnets had made her pockets run dry. So we tried to concentrate. We kept walking. And walking. The beach was straight ahead. And the Sheriff likes that. But this particular beach, dogs are not allowed. So Girl Person said the next best thing would be for us to walk on the sea wall. That way, we could get a good view. But. I’m afraid of heights. Have I mentioned that?

I let Brickle take the high road since he liked it. I stayed below with Girl Person. It was pretty high and many people were looking at us a little funny. But we had a long way to go. We walked and walked and walked. And right as we were about to get to the end of the seawall, a truck was parked up ahead. A person was inside. Watching and doing something on his phone. He looked up at us. But went back to his phone thing. Until. Brickle decided to make use of the sea wall as his bathroom facility. Right then and there. Right there. Right then. It all happened, y’all. Girl Person was wishing she was on that sea wall. Diving away from the embarrassment.

Since Girl Person was at eye level with the embarrassment, she looked at Brickle and just said, “are you kidding me right now?” She stopped. Should she look at the man in the truck? Should she just pretend this was normal? Or should she acknowledge this was not indeed normal and make eye contact? She decided on the latter. And as their eyes met, his look of horror was apparent.

As she looked down to get a dog bag, she realized she would have to climb up there. She told Brickle she needed to lift his 75 pound beach body off that sea wall. He proudly refused as he tried to escape her grip. She realized in defeat that her best plan of action was to get a dog bag and climb up with me being obediently still. In this instance, I was frozen. What would happen next?

As she pulled a dog bag from her backpack, she kept pulling. And pulling. And pulling. And the bag wouldn’t stop. And she said. “Are you kidding me?” Again. Seems as if whoever made the dog bags forgot to make them tearable. And she had, in fact, one. Giant. Dog bag.

This was a sea of disaster. Embarrassment. Up high on a sea wall level. She got out that giant dog bag to clean up that giant mess and then she stopped. Laughed. And she told us, that well, she loved us no matter what. And everyone could laugh. They had reason to.

You see, things happen. At times we would rather they not. Maybe we get embarrassed. Maybe we can learn to laugh at ourselves and make others feel ok when stuff happens to them.

None of us want to feel alone. No. Maybe you’ve never got treat magnets from chasing an armadillo. Or lost your composure on a sea wall. But maybe, just maybe you can realize stuff happens to us all. And you might as well laugh about it.

Did we make it back in time for Girl Person to get groceries? We did. Then the Jeep wouldn’t start. And we sat around a lot. But at least we had something to laugh about. And isn’t that like life? The stuff that we get embarrassed about makes for laughing later on. But Sheriff Brickle?

You. Are. Arrested.

–Deputy Digby Pancake

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