I Live To Serve

I Live to Serve

 

By John W. Vander Velden

 

My name is Mitch.  Isn’t that just the greatest most wonderful name?  Mitch, Mitch, Mitch… I love hearing them say my name.  Oh…I guess I haven’t told you who the “them” are.  They’re Sam and Lisa.  Aren’t those the greatest names any people ever had? Sam, Lisa, Lisa, Sam, Lisa, Sam, Sam, Lisa, they’re the bestest most awesome people, and I live to serve them. 

Lisa brought me home when I was…well I was a puppy.  That was…hmmm…forever ago.  Sam loved me right away, I don’t know why, after all I’m just a dog.  But they tell me that I’m their dog, and they never lie so I know it’s true.  Being someone’s dog is really special, but it’s a lot of work too, not that I’m complaining.  I’ve got to watch things all day, especially when Sam and Lisa go out, and they go out all the time.  I mean I’d like them to take me with them, and sometimes they do.  We go for car rides in the country, or for long walks.  I love car rides.  But other times they just can’t…well they’re gone so long, forever almost.  I miss them, oh how much I miss them, but because it’s Sam and Lisa I know they can’t help it.  I know they would rather spend time here with me than just about anything else, so I understand…really.  So when I’m home alone I listen…Heard that…I’d better go and check that cracklely-creakely sound over there.  Be back in a sec.   

Awwww… it was nothing.  Just a tree branch that rubs against another one.  But it might have been a burglar or maybe something really dangerous like a squirrel or a bunny.  Why just yesterday two crows landed in the back yard.  I sent them packing you can be sure of that.  I only had to bark at the window for fifteen minutes before they got the message.  “Pack it up birds.”  And there’s the guy that comes every day, well almost every day, in that blue-gray uniform, at least I think it’s blue-gray.  I have trouble with colors.  Anyway he comes to the door and puts something in the box out there.  I let him know he had better not come inside, Mitch is on patrol.

There are others that come to the door, but whether or not they ring the doorbell I let them know I hear them and this guard dog doesn’t like strangers around when Sam and Lisa are out.  Nope, nobody has come in on my watch, and nobody’s going to.  You see I’m Mitch, I’m Sam and Lisa’s dog, and I live to serve.

(449 Words)  1-26-2017