Fleegle comes in through the dog door. “I saw a snake in the grass.”

“Really? A garner snake?”

“Yeah. I was going to eat it but it smelled like poo. You need to get off the couch and scoop the lawn, Raud.”

“You mean the snake had slithered through some of your poop so you let it live?”

“I don’t eat my own poop. My friend Hunter does that and I think it has messed with his head. He’s sort of weird and poop obsessed. They could stop feeding him and he’d be a perpetual motion machine.”

“So my staying on this couch, warm and cozy inside, and not scooping the lawn has saved a life?”

“Yes, but think of your lawn and all those bald patches forming under the poop and how all that turns to mud with the rain.” He looks down at the floor between his muddy paws. “And then that mud comes inside. What color did this floor used to be?”

“You mean underneath all of your muddy paw prints? Cream white and blue checked squares, but what was I thinking choosing any color other than brown for the floor?”

Next: Negotiating with Cookies – Labrador Nirvana

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