the day before yesterday.”
Mutt shook his head a little. “You mean two weeks ago. Do you want me to explain it again?”
“No, please don’t,” Stick Dog whispered. “Do you want to know what happened to it?”
“Yes, yes! What happened to it?” asked Mutt, now greatly anticipating the answer. He liked playing Frisbee just as much as Karen and was looking forward to it. “Where is it? I’ll go get it!”
“You ate it,” said Stick Dog flatly.
Mutt turned his head and lifted it just a little. Then his eyes opened much wider, and you could tell he now remembered eating the orange Frisbee. “That’s right. I did eat it.”
“You ate it?!” Poo-Poo, Stripes, and Karen asked all at one time.
Mutt looked down at the ground and pawed at the dirt a little. “I was hungry,” he explained quietly.
Now, to you and me, being hungry is no excuse to eat a hard rubber Frisbee. But to all the dogs – even Stick Dog – this made perfectly good sense, and that was the end of this part of the conversation. Unfortunately, while that was the end of this part of the conversation, it did not solve the problem of playing Frisbee when they didn’t have a Frisbee.
You all know what a Frisbee is, right? What with all these newfangled toys, gadgets, and who-zee-bangers, maybe you don’t. Maybe we’re too busy with our jet packs that fly us across the neighbourhood and our particle-accelerator, atom-busting playthings to know what a Frisbee is.
Just in case you don’t know, it’s a flat rubber disc that you toss back and forth with a friend. And it’s what the dogs need to find.
“Let’s spread out and find a Frisbee,” said Stick Dog. “If we all run in different directions, we’re bound to find one soon enough.”
Mutt, Poo-Poo, Stripes, and Karen all nodded their heads, agreeing that this was a good idea on Stick Dog’s part. When Stick Dog ran off in his direction towards Picasso Park, the other four dogs followed immediately after him.
Has this ever happened to you? It happens to dogs all the time. They know the right thing to do and they understand the directions, but they just can’t do it. They see a nice pair of headphones or a scrumptious-looking sneaker and they know they shouldn’t chew the thing to bits, but they do it anyway.
But does it happen to you? You know the right thing to do, you know the proper instructions, but you just can’t follow them? I think we all know the most common time this happens, don’t we? Oh, you may not know what I’m talking about right this instant, but as soon as I say it you’re going to know I’m right. Ready?
It’s flossing your teeth.
We’ve all been to the dentist. And we’ve all nodded our heads when the dentist asks, “Are you going to floss your teeth every day until your next visit?”
But do you? Come on now. Do you really? Every single day?
If you do, good for you. You follow instructions well, and you practise excellent oral hygiene. And there are only about seven of you in the entire world.
If you don’t, join the club that consists of all the rest of us. Our club has nearly seven billion members. I mean, who wants to spend five minutes running a piece of waxy string between your teeth? Doesn’t it make you feel like a fish caught on a hook? That’s what I always think of. Now, brush often and don’t eat twelve Reese’s Cups for breakfast, I get that. But floss every day? Come on, I’ve got a life to lead, Cha-Cha.
Body hygiene, now that’s a different story. I believe in being very clean and sweet smelling all the time. I live by one hard-and-fast rule: I shower once a month whether I need it or not.
So the dogs didn’t follow Stick Dog’s instructions even though they’d agreed to do so. They simply tore after him to Picasso Park to look for a Frisbee. When they got there, Stick Dog turned around and asked, “Why are you all following me? We were supposed to run in different directions.”
“I didn’t hear you say that,” said Stripes, looking away.
“I swerved a lot,” said Poo-Poo. “So I went in a lot of directions but just ended up in the same place.”
Mutt didn’t say anything. But he did plop down on the ground and start scratching behind his left ear with his right rear leg. He kept almost tipping over and then catching himself at the last minute.
Karen said, “I actually ran in the exact opposite direction. Yeah, that’s what I did. I circled the planet on the exact opposite path and – shazam! – here I am.”
Stick Dog dropped his chin and raised his eyes towards Karen. “You’re really, really fast.”
“Yes, it’s true,” was all Karen said.
“Well, we’re all here now,” said Stick Dog. “Let’s find a Frisbee to play with. And this time, let’s actually go in different directions to look. Meet back here in a few minutes.”
This time they did follow Stick Dog’s directions.
And this time they did find a Frisbee.
Sort of.
THE FRISBEE SEARCH
So, yeah, the dogs ran all over the place to search for a Frisbee, and in no time, they were back. Stick Dog began to quiz the others and survey the results.
“I didn’t have any luck,” said Stick Dog. “How about you guys?”
“I found one!” exclaimed Poo-Poo. “It’s rubbery and it’s a circle and everything.”
“That,” said Stick Dog, looking at what Poo-Poo had, “is a bicycle tyre. It’s too big and flimsy and hollow in the middle. It won’t glide in the air at all.”
“Oh.”
“Where’d you get it?”
“I chewed it off that metal thing over there,” answered Poo-Poo as he pointed. “See that thing with the wheels and the handlebars and the cushy seat? I chewed it off that.”
“That’s a bicycle,” sighed Stick Dog.
Poo-Poo
