Most bizarre phone call ever

[Bullajami]

It happened a few years ago when Squee was still in high school. I was running errands today and drove through Shorty's old neighborhood and it reminded me of it.

Shorty was one of Squee's friends. I never much cared for him. He was an unmotivated degenerate who became a high school drop out. I had a small amount of sympathy for him as it seemed his home environment was not that great. He was living with his mother and step-father and as I understood it, this marriage was also going down the drain. Generally, though, I didn't give him much thought and just wished Squee would find some other friends. Squee could find enough trouble on his own, and Shorty was always too helpful in this regard.

Early one Saturday afternoon I received a phone call.
"Is this Squee's Dad?'

Well, crap - this can't be good. No phone call that ever started like that was ever good. Squee was far too often a miscreant throughout high school, and I was not looking forward to learning of another bone-headed play from him.

"Yes, it is."
"This is Shorty's step-father. I just caught Squee stealing my dogs. I came home and he was coming out of my garage with one dog in his coat and the rest in a gym bag."

This was almost incomprehensible to me. Stealing dogs!?! WTF!?
I don't recall what I told him except that I would look into it. I vaguely remember him insinuating that he had thought of calling the police about the matter.

I hung up and scratched my head. Stealing dogs? Why in the hell would he steal dogs from his friend's house. It made no sense at all. Squee loves dogs, so I know he was not going to be doing anything cruel. Maybe it was a practical joke of some sort? Is there money in this for him somehow? My mind worked over the possibilities and I could not come up with any scenario that made a lick of sense to me. I just had to wait for Squee to come home for dinner.

As soon as he did, I put him to the question, of course. But calmly, as I really wanted to understand what was going on in that mushy skull of his.
"Squee, why would Shorty's step-father call me and tell me he caught you stealing his dogs? You had them in a gym bag?"

Squee's version of the story finally made some sense. It seems that the divorce in Shorty's family was moving along more quickly than I had known. Shorty had moved across town to live with his father. Both adults had also vacated that house, leaving it empty except for the pregnant dog, which they had locked in the garage. Squee and Shorty had been monitoring the situation for several weeks. The dog birthed her puppies and was still contained in the garage. The filth was steadily building up as a result. By the Saturday in question it appeared to the boys that the dog and puppies had not been attended to at all for several days.

They went back to Shorty's new house and Shorty gave Squee a key to the garage at his step-father's house and asked him to rescue the dogs. So he did. As timing would have it, he got caught. Why Shorty was not with him, I do not know.

I had been mentally preparing myself all day for some crazy story full of new moronic lows. I was also prepared to dole out some fitting punishment. In this case it was a hug.

Shorty's step-father never called me back to follow up. I wish he had.

[Stew21]

If you ever see that fool, who seemingly abandoned a pregnant dog, give him an Irish back-hand for me!

Stealing dogs that the owner wasn't taking care of. Yeah, Right.

[Nutjob]

[kinnipak]

[loyo1]

Bull, your post made me think of a couple things:

Reminded me of RiverCascade---wish she hadn't moved on. Can you imagine the hissy fit she would have thrown over that poor abandoned pregnant dog, and the pups which soon arrived? Oh my..... Good for Squee rescuing the little family. How about we lock the divorcing couple in the filthy garage for a few weeks? Seems fair.

Is Squee out of the Marines, or home on leave? Doesn't seem like it's been that long since he enlisted.

Time flies, I guess.

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