Thursday, March 13, 2008

The Best Catch I've Ever Made, and I wish I didn't.


So, I went to drop off a birthday present for Nathan Murray, a friend of ours 3 yr old who just had a birthday. I took Daisy for a ride with me, and we stopped over at their house. I wish I had a picture of it for you. It is a beautiful big log home, between two well sized ponds, and the interior is gorgeous- and immaculate.

Soooo, Dizzle, aka dog who has a healthy sense of entitlement, and I are standing outside of Scott's house talking to him. I was just getting ready to leave, to head over to Outback and pick up Nicole and I's to go order when Scott asked me to come in for a second. Really, I need to go, otherwise food is going to get cold, and Nicole is going to be wondering where I am at, because I have already been there a while talking. But, I say sure, because I wanted to see the deer mount and his saltwater fish aquarium which I love.

Now, Daisy can't be off leash, so she steps in with me, and I initially asked Scott to hold her leash so I could go look at the deer mount and tank. Innocently, Scott asked, can I go ahead and unhook Daisy? Foolishly, I answer, 'yes, as long as you don't care'.

My mistake. I should have remembered what Daisy has done every time she goes into a new house she's never been in before. I should have said, 'Sure, you can unhook her if you don't care if she runs around like a possessed monkey howling and possibly dropping a present off on your carpet for you.' But, I didn't. I had forgot. Daisy is a good dog. She hasn't pooped or peed in our house since she was a puppy. But the first time she was in my parents house, Nicole's parents house and several others....well, there was some cleanup to do.

OK, the next minute went fast. Scott unhooks Daisy, she starts howling and takes off like a wild beast. She is essentially doing her famous hot laps around his house, and I realized my mistake, and what was coming. She bolted for the stairs. I followed in pursuit. As I am racing up the stairs, I see her, just starting to squat at the top of the stairs. I am closing in, but I can't make it in time to stop the inevitable. So I dive. In slow motion, picture me diving up the last few stairs. My arm stretched, palm upward and scooping underneath the dog poop now falling, just arriving to catch the pile in my hand before it hit their nice carpet. I was relieved and disgusted all at the same time. It was really a magnificent catch.

So there I am, dog poop in hand. I startled Daisy enough when I dove at her I interrupted her, so she ran across the room and finished off her business on their carpet in the corner, with me helplessly watching. Scott was laughing the whole time. I don't think he and Jen were mad, but I felt stupid, and more than a little mad and annoyed at Daisy, who really somehow had no clue she'd done something wrong.
So, next time we go to Scott and Jen's house Daisy is staying outside. I also won't plan on making any more magnificent catches, I would have just been better off letting her go in one spot. I'll add though, while it was the best catch I've ever made, it wasn't the best catch I've ever seen. That involves a softball player, a farmer and his hat, an umpire, and a really efficient sequence of events. But I'll let Cullen tell that story if he feels like it.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I laughed so hard that I had tears in my eyes. That is one of the funniest stories ever!! Good job Trav!

Travis said...

I knew it was funny at the time, but I definitely wasn't laughing. Nicole laughed pretty hard when I got home and told her though.

Anonymous said...

I heard the story about 'the catch' with the softball, farmer and umpire. legendary.

Anonymous said...

Holy crap, nice catch. But you're right, the slick work of a couple of softball efficiency experts is hard to beat. It's really one of those things you have to see to appreciate, and I think the best part of the whole thing was how easy it looked. I'm sure that if Travis and I were given a few chances we could reenact it pretty faithfully, but we could never recreate the graceful transaction that these two farmers took part in. Foul ball over the backstop, caught in dude's hat, flung back over the fence with hat, and caught by the umpire with his mask. Play ball.

Anonymous said...

By the way, your baby looks awesome. I also like the new look of the blog...that pic of Daisy kicks.

Anonymous said...

You know since it is the heat of the season you should post a politcal blog. I would like to see where i stand with everyone that checks this

Nick and Stephanie said...

I laughed outloud when I read that because I can totally see that happening! Daisy did run around our house like possessed monkey but never took a dump on the carpet! That means she must like us :) or was afraid of our beast of a cat. :) Nice catch anyway.....hope you washed those hands before digging in to your Outback dinner!