What Jack Needs is a Good Lawyer

Hick has been working around Poolio for a couple of weeks, building a new deck. I can't go into all the details now, because that's going to be a special addition that I'm planning for you while I'm livin' the wild life during Casinopalooza 2.

I don't plan on taking my laptop this trip, because during the original Casinopalooza, I barely had a chance to open it up, what with so many casinos, so little time. You'll have a fresh post every day, but I won't catch up with comments until Tuesday night. My last communication will probably be Sunday morning.

Anyhoo...as with any project Hick has going on, there are always a few loose ends. Sometimes they never get tightened. He had to move everything off the old deck in order to rebuild it. So he put stuff down by the basement door, under the porch.

Last night I went out to talk to him over the porch rail. He had drained some water from the top of Poolio after the first big flood-producing rain, and finally got the cover off. Now the water level is a foot or two below the edge. I saw movement in Poolio, and told Hick,

"You have a frog in there."

"Yeah. I've had several."

"Well, you need to get him out. He'll drown. He's not made to live in the water for his whole life."

"I don't have my dip net."

"You don't need it. He's over by the filter. You can reach him with your hand. Where's your dip net?"

"Jack tore it up."

"How did JACK get a dip net?"

"It was on the bench seat that I put by the basement door. He got up on there and got it, I guess. I found it in the front yard, all chewed up."

"It's pretty long."

"So's Jack."

Huh. Jack DOES get into things. And I guess he COULD have carried a dip net around the house. I saw him in the front yard one day with a limb about 8 feet long. He had no trouble romping around with that.

But this morning, I found THIS in the driveway.

I guess it's something Hick trimmed off when he was moving Poolio's filter closer to the new deck. I sent Hick a picture asking if it belonged to him, and he said,

"Looks like your dog got into things again."

Au contraire. I don't think Jack's mouth is big enough to grab that hose. He's got a tiny mouth. I even have to cut up the food for his evening snack.

And...it was the neighbor dog, Copper, who was discovered laying closest to the contraband. Yes, Copper DOES have a head. But in the way of the guilty dogs when they know you want a picture, he made sure we couldn't see his face.

Jack was not near it. Not near Copper, either. Just minding his own business over by the porch.

I guess we'll never know who took that hose. I threw it up on top of Hick's Olds Toronado. You know. The one he accused Jack of jumping up on and taking a crap on the trunk.