Those 70ish Girls

There was one thing that Arf and Miss Bessie had in common and that was curiosity. Yes, when they met someone, they loved them until they had a reason not to and in the meantime, Miss B uncovered as much information as she could. Her main focuses these days seemed to be Brad Humbolt, Steve, who was the carpenter repairing her barn, and his daughter, Katie.

“Hi Miss Bessie,” Brad said as he walked up to the porch where Miss B was rocking and Arf was sitting beside her.

“What are you doing here, Arf? I thought Jamie would have left by now.”

“I don’t know why you would be so surprised, Brad. Jamie said it was your idea for me to be Arf’s grandhuman. My granddog will be staying here for the next month while Jamie finishes school.”

**I’m just a dog, but something told me I should help Brad out here, so I took my frisbee over and laid it at his feet. He didn’t seem to notice, so I whined a little bit. Finally, I got his attention.

“Arf, I’m glad you’ll be sticking around for a while. Miss Bessie, did Jamie say where she was going to spend the summer?”

“She didn’t say a thing about it,” Miss Bessie answered. “She was kind of preoccupied. Like she had something on her mind.”

***Come on Brad. Don’t you see what she’s doing? Take a timeout and throw me the frisbee a few times. Maybe she’ll get distracted and talk about something else.

“I can’t stay long, Miss Bessie, but Arf seems to think I should throw that pretty new frisbee to him.”

“Jamie got it for him,” Miss Bessie said. “And she brought me a beautiful bouquet of tulips. When you and Arf are done playing, come inside for coffee and a homemade cinnamon roll. I’ll go in and warm them up.”

***Brad just shook his head, but like Steve the builder, he did as Miss Bessie insisted and stayed for coffee. When Brad left, she stood on the porch and waved goodbye. “My goodness he’s a hard nut to crack, Arf. I didn’t find out one new thing.”

If dogs could laugh, I would have. I knew Miss Bessie wasn’t about to give up.

A couple of days later, I got a big surprise.

“Do you know what Arf? Steve is going to bring little Katie with him this morning. She won’t be able to run and play with you because she had some sort of spinal injury when she was a baby, but Steve said she loves dogs, so I’m sure you two will find a way to have fun.”

***Just like I did every day, I waited on the front porch for Steve to get there. If he had time, he threw the frisbee to me a few times so I wanted to be ready. After Miss Bessie and I finished our chores, I sometimes helped Steve work on the barn. I fetched things for him.

This morning when he pulled in, he got a chair with wheels on it out of the back of his truck. He took it around to the other side and opened the door. He lifted a little girl from the seat and carefully put her in the chair. I was so excited, I ran out to greet them.

“Katie honey, meet Arf,” Steve said. “And that’s Miss Bessie waving at you from the porch.”

I didn’t know what to do. I licked Katie’s hand and she smiled at me. Then she reached out to me and said, “Do you know how to shake, Arf?”

I know shake. I lifted my paw up high so Katie could reach it. I knew right away that I was going to like my new friend.