As my children were growing up, always I was blessed by the way my son responded whenever I asked him to do something. One of his daily duties was to take the garbage and waste paper out for me, and he was really good about doing it.
One evening we had Kentucky Friend Chicken for dinner, and as I was finishing up the dishes I called out to him that there was some garbage to take out. I just bagged it up and then left the bag in the sink so that the pets wouldn't get into it. We had found that this system worked just fine. He called back to me, "I'll get it, Mom". Because he was consistent in following through, I just didn't give it another thought, and went on to something else in another room.
Well, this one time he forgot to take it out. And I didn't notice that fact. When I got up the following morning, it seems that Kitty Cat had decided she would like some chicken too. I could not believe what I was looking at when I walked into the kitchen. She had opened the bag and spread it's contents out in the sink and from one end of the counter to the other.
I could have gotten mad, but actually it was kind of humorous. My son "goofed" this one time, and Kitty Cat had a wonderful time. But I had to rush to clean up the mess so that I could cook breakfast and get my children to school on time. I bagged up the mess, cleaned up the counter with bleach and then set about hurrying to make breakfast.
When my son came in, I told him what had happened and that I had now set the bag of garbage by the back door. He said, "I'm sorry, Mom. I'll get it out." We ate and rushed off to school, just barely getting there on time.
I drove back home, and when I came into the house was totally amazed all over again. My son had again forgotten, and now Scruffy, (our part-mutt, part Mini-Schnauzer), had dined on the chicken. This time it was strung out from one end of the kitchen to the other. But he was a little "higher class" than Kitty Cat. He had taken what was left of the scraps into the dining room and "dined" under the dining room table. At first I just stood there and stared at the size of the problem. I didn't think there was that much garbage left in the bag! And then I began to laugh.....
The joke was on me, and the pets had definitely had a good morning. So rather than get all upset, I just cleaned up the mess. But I did tease my son about it. He didn't forget after that.
© 2006 Arlene Schwartzkopf