This is Deputy Digby Pancake.  I have lots of strong points.  I can smell something disgusting a mile away.  Or five.  I can throw myself on disgusting stuff at a moment’s notice.  But what I cannot do is worry about danger.  I have no time for that.  I. Just. Do. I. Don’t. Think.  That is not my job.

Such a feelin’s comin’ over me
There is wonder in ‘most ev’ry thing I see

So when we were hiking last night, I thought of my schedule and what I had planned.  I would smell stuff and find unmentionable stuff.  I would pull on the leash and not listen to Girl Person.  I would also stick my head in the bushes whenever I wanted to see what was in there.  But I guess I had forgot about the alligator from last week.  Sheriff Brickle had not.  The Sheriff never forgets apparently.

I was looking ahead at the trail.  Oh, trail.  What a beautiful sight when you know that your whole day is ahead of you.  Oh, the possibilities.

There is only one wish on my mind
When this day is through I hope that I will find
That tomorrow will be just the same for you and me

 

But as I sometimes do, I only see what is front of me.  Girl Person says that is a good thing.  But that it can be a bad thing if you stick your head somewhere that it doesn’t belong.  So I wasn’t thinking when I stuck my head in that bush.  I wasn’t thinking about that alligator that crossed our path in the same place last week.

So as I lowered my head in that bush full of sand spurs and weeds, Girl Person told me to be careful of the snakes.  She always tells me to be careful of the snakes.  But she doesn’t tell me to be careful of the alligator birds.  Because I didn’t even know such a thing existed.

But all of a sudden, when the force of an alligator’s jaw in a Florida swamp full of catfish, about a million or a million and three birds came flying out of that bush and knocked me down on top of my peed on head.  Girl Person screamed and started running with the birds coming after us.  It was a worse scene than Bodega Bay.

And the Sheriff?  The Sheriff.  He did something that Girl Person had not seen before.  He did not think.  He did not pause.  He jumped in that bush, not knowing if there was an alligator in there.  He jumped in that bush to save us all.  And Sheriff Brickle? He was my hero.  From this day forward, I know.  I know that Sheriff Brickle will always help me. He will always save me.  And the world is good.  The world is so good.

I have lived my almost nine years wondering what else I could get in to.  And now, I can spend more years getting into more.  Because if the Sheriff is there to save me from the Alligator Birds, the Sheriff can do anything.  Girl Person says that everyone should have a Sheriff.  She said that true friends don’t think about helping you, they just do.  Kind of like I just roll in gross stuff.  I don’t think.  I just do.  And so, the next time that someone needs your help, and you can help, why not just do?

As we were running, and screaming…yes…loud…a man person on a bike was riding up the path.  And did he stop? Did he ask us what was wrong?  No.  He did not.  Because he didn’t know the danger of the Alligator Birds.  He didn’t care though.  And it made me love the Sheriff even more.  Yes.  I love him.  I said it.

I always wondered why the Sheriff watches everything when he could be doing everything like me.  But what I have found out is that in our world, there are all kinds.  There are ones that need help one day, and maybe they can help someone else the next.  Don’t be the ones that just ride by.

For the Sheriff, he made my world good.  He made me feel important.

I’m on the top of the world lookin’ down on creation
And the only explanation I can find
Is the love that I’ve found ever since you’ve been around
Your love’s put me at the top of the world

The Sheriff made me realize that if I am worth being saved and loved so much, the least I can do is help someone else in the future.  So if you need saving from any Alligator Birds, I am your dog.  Let me know.  I know how to deal with those things.

-Deputy Digby Pancake

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