Josh's First Haircut

It was some hot that day long, long ago.  There lay Josh, pantin’ an’ dreamin’ as dogs do.  How am I to know dogs sweat through their tongue?  All I know is me an’ cows.  Sweat runs off their back, just like mine. 

Sorrowful thing, layin’ there in the shade of that mimosa in the middle of the afternoon.  Einstein moment, I think.  I have just the cure.  Off I go in search of Granny’s scissors; the perfect tool for such a job.  Back in a jiffy, an’ ole Josh is still off in dreamland sommer’s.  Little did he know, it was fixin’ to be a nightmare of the largest proportions. 

Josh was a mixed breed dog.  I think his mammy was a hound an’ his pappy was a shep dog of some other description, but Josh came out a long haired fellah.  He was dark brown, but you brush it back to the hide, an’ that brown eventually becomes plumb white.  So I set in doin’ a yeoman’s job with those shears.  It’d cut some here, some there till I had most parts worked over from head to tail.  I even trimmed around the ears.  When I got through with the tail, Josh sorta resembled a ‘possum.  He didn’t mind.  He was instantly cool.  No more slobber drippin’ down, an’ he’d been awoke from that purty thing in his dreams.

All that was missin’ was a set of checkers.  He coulda laid on either side, an there’d been a spot for a full set of checkers…those big ones too.  I can’t say I was exactly proud, but this was my first shot at barberin.’  From the looks of it, I don’t believe I coulda made too good a livin’ at it, but then, I was only ten; what did I know or even care. 

Josh was the perfect playmate.  Ever where Phil would go, Josh was right there.  We’d go to the pasture an’ bring the cows in for milkin’ together or we’d just traipse off to the creek or to a friend’s house.  It didn’t matter; Josh was right there…or was till then.  I took off up the road to visit a friend, an’ Josh an’ me were right there together down the drive till we got to the road.  I turned left, an’ Josh run to the other side an’ turned left parallel to me, but off in the trees an’ tall grass.  Poor thing.  He knew.  He had quickly learned the meanin’ of “dog ugly!”  He would NOT come down to the road no matter how hard I coaxed or called.  No sirree; he was not goin’ to expose himself to the public. 

I was embarrassed.  There I was, tryin’ to do a good turn to my bestest friend an’ playmate, an’ I’d sure ‘nuff failed.  The only savin’ grace was hair grows out eventually, an’ so it was with Josh.  Bless his heart.  He was faithful, even though I’d made him the laughin’ stock of all His Friends! 

Don’t ever think that ‘cause we’re human, we’ve got the market cornered on feelin’s.  Animals have feelin’s too.  At least dogs do…I haven’t figgered out cats just yet.