theBarnstorming

« A Really Big Hat | Main | Quite Possibly the Most Wonderful Woman in the World »

March 13, 2008

Caught in the Act

We are back from the flower show and on to other things. Tuesday we visited our baby doctor and had Robbi's belly measured. All is well. The doctor outlined various indicators that will let us know when the time has come to depart for the hospital. Most of them are too unpleasant to describe. Several of you have asked how far we have to go to get to the hospital, given that we live (as you city slickers say) in the middle of nowhere. You may be comforted to know that the Chester River Hospital Center is, in fact, only about two minutes from the barn when traveling in a swiftly moving vehicle. Should the need arise, I could probably fashion a crude litter out of branches and burlap and drag Robbi there in less than a half an hour.

Wednesday I went to Baltimore to do a bit of work and while there, picked up Ruby, per the request of Christian and Emily, who are this weekend going to see our friend David in Sunday in the Park with George on Broadway.

Here is Ruby. She is so good.

At the appointed time, I entered the Christian/Emily household, removed the dog and her accompanying accessories, and made my swift and seamless getaway.

Or so I thought.

It turns out, my flight was witnessed by a concerned neighbor/neighborhood watch paramilitary, who reported my suspicious activity to Christian via email as follows:

"I think I witnessed a dog napping yesterday where a gentleman hustled off with what appeared to be Ruby. With the aide of a sketch artist, we worked up a rendering of the suspect. Let me know if there's anything I can do!" - Bob

If Christian had any question about the identity of the perpetrator, it was cleared up when he saw the artist's rendering. I must admit, it's pretty good.

Consequently, Christian called and accused me of stealing his dog, citing incontrovertible evidence and threatening litigation. When I reminded him that he had expressly asked me to pick up Ruby, that I was in fact doing him a favor, he seemed unmoved, ensuring me that dog theft was a hanging crime in Maryland. And who am I to argue? He is clearly much better versed in the laws of this fine state than am I.

The upshot: I have been summoned to appear before a grand jury next week and am at a bit of a loss considering it is usually Christian or Emily who advise me on matters of legal uncertainty.

The lesson here? Certainly no good deed goes unpunished. And never agree to dogsit for a lawyer.

Posted by bogenamp at March 13, 2008 11:59 PM

Comments

Posted by: Sarah at March 14, 2008 06:03 PM

Posted by: Timothywk at April 5, 2008 07:06 PM