Punishing The Good Deed

My sister and my niece go for a four-mile walk every morning. Yesterday, they spied a man coming toward them, yelling, "Dusty! Dusty!" Sis said, "Oh, I hope he's not crazy. He coming right at us." As he got closer, he asked if they had seen two poodle puppies. No, they had not. They kept walking around the neighborhood, as did Dog Hollerer. Their paths crossed several more times. "Dusty! DUSTY!" Each time, he asked if they had seen the poodle puppies. No, they had not.

On a different block, they saw a woman in a housecoat, cutting across lawns. Sis said, "Oh, no. There's another crazy person. And she's coming right at us." As the woman got closer, she asked Sis and Niece, "Did you two lose some poodle puppies?" They looked at each other. Niece snorted. Sis said, "No. But we know who did." Housecoat embellished that she had seen two poodle puppies cavorting in a back yard, and she was concerned that something would happen to them.

Sis and Niece followed Housecoat's directions, and saw the poodle puppies. They called for them. It just so happens that they knew one of them was named Dusty. After catching the dewy squirming puppies, each holding a pup, they backtracked to look for the Dog Hollerer. Sis thought it was mighty odd that Housecoat would worry about two puppies in a back yard. How did she know they didn't belong in that back yard? It's not like they had pitched a tent on the 405 Freeway.

A car pulled up beside them and stopped. It was the Dog Hollerer. "Here. We found your puppies." Just then, a police car stopped. The policeman said, "Are these your puppies?" Dog Hollerer nodded. "I've been looking for them all morning. They got out of the yard." Policeman said, "Hey, aren't you that guy that has two dogs in your back yard over on Something Or Other Street?" Dog Hollerer said, "Yes. That's me." Policeman pulled out a ticket pad. "The city only allows three dogs per house."

Sis and Niece tried to blend into the morning mist. After all that trouble, it looked like Dog Hollerer was going to lose his puppies because they had found them for him.

Some days, it just doesn't pay to walk four miles.