Tails On the Waterfront

Warning! All discerning dogs: There is absolutely nothing of interest for you at Manteo's Saturday morning Farmer's Market! The peeps love it, but it's mostly locally grown vegetables (yuck), plants and flowers (yawn), doo-dads and crafts (huh?), and once I did get a whiff of what might have been homemade banana bread but the peep behind the table had it wrapped so tightly in plastic you'da thought our national security depended on that secret.

Now, don't get me wrong, it's always good to be in the park on any sunny morning. But 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays--what's in it for me? Love all the people, but not one of 'em is paying any attention to me! (Except Bettie Blanchard who took that first darling photo of me and my peep.) They're all oohing and aahing over vegetables or standing in line to buy a plant. Hello?

Last Saturday morning though something happened that really goes to prove that there's a silver lining in every cloud. A tragic accident turned into a jackpot for me! Some klutzy kid dumped maybe half a bag of cheese curls under a picnic table--no doubt he wailed at the loss of these golden nuggets (tee hee). Shortly after noon, as I began my second patrol of the day, olfactory diligence paid off: I scarfed up these delectable morsels as my peep stamped her feet and made frantic noises "Meg, blah, blah, sick, blah, throw up, blah, blah!" Which, of course, as you well know, this kind of reaction from the peep just proves how really, really good this stuff is! I just got to it before she could--pure jealousy.

She was still huffy about the whole thing during the third patrol of the day when I had to eat a lot of grass. Standing there shaking her head. Well, shoot, my tummy hurt. Awash in such negativity, I couldn't even eat my dinner that night. I felt a whole lot better after I "returned" the grass to the park.

So, the Farmer's Market isn't a total loss, and I'm not saying you'll get lucky as I did, you just have to keep your nose to the cheese curl, er, grindstone and be ever so vigilant.

Ok, speaking of vigilant, I need to thank the concerned Manteo citizen who sent me the picture that proves what Carl, the dockmaster, does when I'm not around (see my last post):

Do you see why I have to patrol so often on the weekends? Check back for more Tails On the Waterfront...