The Woman Who Hollered

There was a successful young single woman in her late twenties, the first in her family to graduate from college, who decided she needed to get a dog.  Her name was Allie, and she paid a pretty penny for a pure-bred German Shepherd puppy whom she named Rocky.  Rocky was adorable, cute and cuddly.  But Rocky grew big - very big.  Even though Rocky chewed up many items around her apartment, Allie dearly loved him. Rocky trained Allie to be a neat housekeeper and put away all her clothes and food immediately.  Since Rocky was big enough to put his front paws on her kitchen counter and thereby reach all food there, this trained Allie well.

Allie decided that the time had come to give Rocky a proper yard to run around in.  She determined to buy her first house.  Allie quickly found a small, modern, three-bedroom house she loved with an especially big yard.  Rocky was in his glory, running at lightning speed at anything that moved both inside and outside the yard.  This also trained Allie to confine Rocky inside the house while she was at work because her neighbors were afraid of Rocky and thought he might jump the nice new fence Allie had installed for him.  Allie also thought someone might want to steal a fine chap like Rocky while she was away.

The first spring, the grass in the yard started to grow. Now Allie had to buy a lawnmower.  She mowed and mowed.  She never had done any yard work. This was hard work!  It hadn't seemed all that hard when she was growing up, watching her dad do all the yard work.  Problem was, now dad was four hours away in another part of the state.

After a couple of months of mowing the grass in Rocky's yard, Allie was tired.  One day, she went out in the yard and yelled at the top of her voice, "Stop growing!!!"  The End.

(Note: Allie still enjoys the love of her life, Rocky, still mows the grass for him but no longer hollers at the grass!)

Lord, for whatever patience you have given us, thank you!  It is hard to watch folks learn and grow, particularly the hard-headed ones who don't pay attention when anyone dares to point out the reality of their proposed choices. The bright side of this is at least they are comfortable discussing things.