Cujo in the Attic

By Jody Worsham

All rights reserved for the Dog Whisperer

Last night was your typical evening at home with the family.   By bedtime, all teeth had been brushed and/or removed for cleaning and baths had been taken.  Then the Tween-ager couldn’t find the dog.  The hunt for the Shih Tzu began.  Finally I yelled in a clam voice “GO TO BED.  The dog is in the house somewhere.  She’s just hiding… (and I don’t blame her).”

Five minutes later both children burst into the bedroom wide-eyed, slamming doors, screaming, and talking at the same time.  “There’s something in the attic.  It’s chasing us up and down the hall.”  Thinking this was just a ploy to avoid bedtime, I went into the hall to herd them toward bed when I heard it.  More screams, slamming doors, and talking at the same time which brought Dr. Hubby to the hallway.

He heard it but rather than scream and slam doors, he merely pulled down the folding staircase in the hall ceiling to investigate.  There was the Shih Tzu.  I was sure she had morphed into Cujo.  It seems someone had left the storage door to the attic in the upstairs playroom open.  While upstairs hiding one of my biscuits under the sofa, the dog had investigated the open door.  When she heard the kids calling her, she followed the sounds through the ceiling…running all over the attic.

Hot and dehydrated, cool water was administered.  The dog was hot and dehydrated, too, so they gave her some cool water as well.  After many assurances that there were no other critters in the attic and Cujo was just a movie, I managed to go to bed.  The kids and the dog had gone to bed an hour earlier.

Some people have bats in the belfry; we have Shih Tzu’s in the attic.  More fodder for the blogger!