Flip-Flops In The Woods

This is Digby Pancake. Sometimes you have to leave a problem where you find it.

Sometimes you have to face your fears. Sometimes you have to leave your flip flops behind in the woods.

It was just like any other night at the Big Barking Biscuit Buggy. Except that it was pouring rain. Except that there was an intruder in the woods. Except that Girl Person forgot her flip flops were broken.

Except that I decided to take off with my brother after aforementioned intruder thru a field of poison oak.

That’s right. I may have a rebellious side in me. I may lose my self control at times. And at that moment in the pouring rain in the field of poison oak, well, nothing else particularly mattered.

I guess I surprised Girl Person. Because as she was cleaning us up after getting rained on, I smelled the intruder more vividly than a late pizza delivery.

He was on my list to chase. And chased him we did. Leaving Girl Person on the RV steps yelling our names and hastily putting on her flip flops which she forgot had broken earlier. We didn’t listen to her. We didn’t recognize that tune…

Half broken flip flops are a full disappointment. Especially when your mission is to apprehend your dogs in the woods full of poison oak.

So as she ran into the landscape that can only be described as a field of broken dreams, she decided the only thing she could do was throw off those flip flops and barrel thru the woods while not being able to see a thing.

Except for the fact that she couldn’t see with all the branches in her face. And so she ran back to find more shoes appropriate for the chase.

But as much as I enjoy trying to chase a deer and a raccoon thru the woods, I also know my midnight snack won’t be delivered.

And so Brickle and I meandered back just as Girl Person and her proper shoes came back.

Girl Person was relieved. But her skin side wasn’t. Her feet were not. And her pride? Left in the woods with the flip flops.

You see, I wanted to come back. So I did. You may think you can hold onto someone from leaving. But the truth is, if they want to, they will always find a way. Don’t hurt yourself by dangerously trying to catch them.