This is bad. Soooo bad.
When I was kid, growing up outside Seattle, I had the responsibility of taking care of the family yard. I toiled for years tending to our lawn and garden. I have no complaints, because I really enjoyed the creative freedom I had when it came to landscaping. I did a whole assortment of neat projects; making footpaths, edging and manipulating the area of green grass, but most of all I had a garden.
Ah yes, the garden. I would wake up early on Saturday mornings and tend to whatever crop I had. It was fun...UNTILL! Muffy. Good ol Muffy, the rabid poodle who belonged to our next-door neighbor. Every spring and summer (when I tended to my garden) this dog would come over on to our property and bark a vicious storm, keeping about a good 5-foot distance from me. This went on for about 3 years. We issued several complaints to the dogs owner, but the problem persisted. Even went to the point where I just finally ignored the dog all together.
Then it happened.
I was working in my yard and digging a hole for a rose bush. As always, there was Muffy barking up her storm, and as usual, I ignored her. As I was nearing completion of the hole, I hit a rather large rock and was required to take it out by hand. So there I am kneeling down with my ass exposed and prying the rock lose and Muffy finally took a nice big bite just below my right butt cheek. It hurt, man, did it HURT! Now, the shovel I was using was to my immediate right hand side, without thought but on pure reaction...quick like lightning...I grabbed the shovel and did a half circle sweep and WHAP! Muffy goes sailing. No wimper, no whelp, no nothing, Muffy landed with a silent thud on the yard about 10 feet away. Muffy was gone.
Now I begin to panic, I just killed the dog. I do a quick sweep of the area and notice no one had been watching, nor any attention had come to the situation at hand. My mind was racing. I pick up the dog and make my way to the neighbors front door. I had it in mind to tell them the truth, apologize, and take whatever punishment my parents would dish out...until I saw my neighbors car in their driveway. No I didnt? Oh yes...I did. I place Muffy at the base of the back wheel on the passenger side and walked away...returning to the rose bush project.
It was about twenty minutes later when I heard my neighbors car start up, followed by a few moments pause, then the shrill scream of: OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!. At first, since I didnt have a view of the neighbors car, I thought that they had found Muffy lying in the driveway under the wheel. This was quickly dismissed when the screaming continued with, JEFF! I KILLED THE DOG! OH MY GOD! I KILLED THE DOG!
I then race up to the front of the house to see how it would turn out. Even my parents, sisters, and a few other neighbors had come out to see the commotion. There was my neighbor, Mrs. Olsen, holding Muffy in her arms weeping near her husband. She was going on about how she didn't see the dog in the driveway and that she had backed up over it. Then they went inside their house.
I never, to this day, mentioned this story to anyone. I felt terrible.
Edited by - D8TA on 7 January 2003 16:40:16