Chapter 10

A Big Surprise

We had gone on vacation to Gettysburg and were driving home when we saw something surprising. We had stopped at a rest-stop in rural Pennsylvania, looking across the parking lot, I saw a puppy and thought, "Huh! That's looks like a boxer puppy." I pointed it out to Charlie, just as someone opened a gate at the back of a van and a whole swarm of little boxer puppies jumped out and began romping on the grass.

A Little Puppy

Charlie and I walked over, met the owner, and began trying to help ride herd on the little puppies. They jumping and barking and looking for nasty things to get into in the grass. We tried to help keep them out of the parking lot and to pet them and love them up. Anyone who's seen one boxer puppy knows how irresistable they are, but the effect of multiple puppies is exponentially irresistable. Pretty soon we were all over there, sitting with them in the grass.

I noticed that some of the little puppies had collars and some didn't. I pointed out one little female puppy to Daniel. We had been talking about getting another boxer, but hadn't taken any official steps to do so. Alisa and the kids fell in love with this little one almost instantly and began trying to persuade me to get her. (As if I needed to be persuaded to get a boxer puppy!)

Penny Comes Home

The woman who was transporting the puppies was reluctant to sell one at a rest stop -- she said she never did that. But we made a persuasive case. I think the piece de resistance was that Charlie was wearing his "Plato Shirt". Someone who makes a T-shirt with their boxer's picture can't be all bad. In any event, before long, Penny was coming home with us. It certainly made the ride home a lot more interesting. We kept wondering, "What is Plato going to think?"