Gulf Coast Tails


Proof that vacations can still provide hilarious memories, even after they’re over. One spring, my family took a vacation to the Gulf Coast. It was great fun, and we each brought back souvenirs. Flash forward a couple weeks to find us back at home and settled into our daily routines.

Enter our black lab, Maggie.

Now, the first thing you need to know about Maggie is that she could never hide when she’d done something naughty. It was impossible for her. She’d curl up on her bed and stare at us sheepishly with big brown apologetic eyes that said, “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t help myself.”

It became a kind of joke within our family, so when we came back from errands one day to find Maggie in her “I’m sorry” position on her bed, we chuckled and started checking the trash cans or bathrooms for chewed up Kleenexes and other goodies.

Nothing.

We couldn’t find any trace of what she might have gotten into. But she oh-so-very-clearly had done something.

We started looking more carefully and suddenly noticed a couple tiny red spots on the carpet in the hall. The kind a dog might leave from cutting its gums while chewing on a bone. Except no one had given Maggie a bone. They seemed to be going into my brother’s room, so we investigated further…and found a tooth.

Not a dog’s tooth, mind.

A shark’s tooth.

“Chris,” my mom said. “Where did you put the shark jaw you brought back from the trip?”

“On my bed…”

You guessed it. The bed was now empty. We found only three remaining teeth. Maggie had eaten the entire shark jaw! To her, I’ll bet it smelled exactly like a bone…and probably tasted like one too.

My grandparents got my brother a replacement souvenir when they traveled south later that summer, and we got a one-of-a-kind vacation tale from the comforts of our own home.

6 comments:

  1. Well...when you leave tasty looking bones on the bed...

    Great story :)

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  2. We had just returned from vacation once and left all our souvenirs on our enclosed porch when we got home really late and just went to bed. The next day we all left for work and school. A tornado came through destroying our porch and everything there was never seen again.

    The rest of the house was fine.

    Dropping by from A to Z. First year participating.

    Brett Minor
    Transformed Nonconformist

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  3. Wow! I guess that would be easily mistaken for an edible bone. Poor Maggie.

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  4. I wonder how many critters that jaw consumed before it was itself eaten...

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  5. Talk about putting fiber in your diet!! :)

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