Through the Eyes of a Delivery Goddess |
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I thought perhaps it was about time to tell you about Dipstick. Most of you know that Bob's dog's name is Dipstick... and he wears it VERY well! One really stormy night, I believe it was 1996, Bob was driving down from his home in Sarver toward North Park, which is the location of the Post Gazette depot. At that time, I was living in Bairdford, where we all live now, which is about three-quarters of the way to North Park. As he passed the Bairdford Post office,  he could see this poor shaggy, saggy wet dog darting back and forth from side to side across the road, obviously confused and terrified by the loud cracks of lightning. Bob stopped and opened the door to see if the dog had a collar .... big mistake, Big, HUGE... the drenched, stinky dog jumped in the front seat with Bob. He would NOT get back out. I'm sure at some point, everyone in their life has been around a long-haired wet dog, and are familiar with the bouquet of scents and smells that radiates from such an animal. Bob brought him to my house for safe keeping until morning, after our paper routes. I had a large dog cage here for my first fat pug, Albert, so we put the dog in the cage and went on to work. When we got home in the morning, we tied a collar and leash to the dog, and paraded him around the neighborhood, hoping he would show some excitement near a house that might be his own. This dumb dog was excited at every house. The people we saw along our way had no idea where he came from, or to whom he might belong, so we loaded him into the truck and took him to West Deer's No-Kill shelter, hoping someone had been looking for a missing dog. The fellow in charge at the municipal building said he'd seen this dog several days earlier running around the ball fields at the park, but he didn't seem to belong to anyone there, either. Bob took the dog home and decided on the name Dipstick. Bob thought he should run an ad in the paper, advertising a lost dog - but no one claimed him. He then ran a "free to good home" ad, and someone called ... an older gentleman who wanted a companion. By this time, though, Bob was growing fond of old Dippy, and when he took the dog to meet the potential owner, he deliberately told the fellow, "Ya, he ate a big hole in my leather couch, yesterday". Of course, the old guy quickly turned him down. On the way home, Bob had Dippy in the bed of the truck, which had a cap covering the bed. Dipstick figured out how to open the window and jump out. Bob then placed an ad, "Lost dog". A woman called, and Bob got Dippy back. The old hair-bag is still in the family today, barks at everything and nothing, hates water, baths and storms and UPS trucks (we don't understand that one, either). Loves hotdogs, including Bob. Even though this is not really a story about delivery, it was on the WAY to delivering in the middle of the night, so it seemed to fit in to the scheme of things well enough to share. Go hug your dogs! |