Just A Little Stuck

Trust me, when I walked into the backyard, it certainly wasn't anything I was expecting.

Half-asleep, I had reached down to take my dog, June, out of her crate to let her go to the bathroom. Then I dragged myself over to our coffee machine. It was really the only thing that kept me going in the morning - the thought of the caffeine coursing through my veins.

Once my coffee was made, I decided to sit down on our back porch and relax on one of our comfy chairs. With one steaming cup of coffee in my right hand, I stepped outside and felt the cool, moist air of the early morning across my face. Just as I was about to lounge onto one of the chairs, I heard an ear-piercing scream.

At first, I just rubbed my eyes and thought that I imagined the scream. Obviously the caffeine hadn't kicked in yet because it took me a moment to realize that you don't hear a scream with your eyes. Then I heard another scream, except it definitely wasn't a human scream. Remembering June, I set my coffee down and ran across the yard.

Although I felt extremely bad for it, I had to stifle a laugh as I looked at June. She was in the middle of our hammock, one of the strings intertwined in her teeth. She moved her body furiously, trying to get herself untangled. With each movement she seemed to be making it tighter. I could see the pain (and hear it too, with her screams) in her eyes.

I had quickly reached my fingers over to take the hammock strings out from her mouth, and used my other hand to gently stroke her fur so she would calm down. I surprisingly had to yank a few times to get the string loose, which came away red when it did. I looked at June who was panting heavily, and felt very bad for her.

I guess I didn't need the coffee that morning after all.

Word Count: 339