Ol' Buddy

I came home this evening and I should have realized something was amiss. Ol' Buddy who usually greets me at the truck yapping excitedly and dashing around the yard like a tailback for the Crimson Tide.....today hung back and barked from the porch.
I didn't think much about it until he followed me inside. Once I shut the door, something SMELLED. I stepped back out the front door and checked my shoes but everything was clean. I went back in and there was that smell again. When I got close to Ol' Buddy, he reaked like three-day-old roadkill on August asphalt in Alabama. I was not happy. I grabbed the doggie shampoo and tossed his wormy butt into the bathtub and gave him a bath.
Now Ol' Buddy loves Slim Jims and he loves ridin' in the truck, but he hates baths so as soon as I dried him off, he was out the back door like a shot. I told him (as if he could understand my words) that's what happens when you roll around on a dead possum.
Ol' Buddy is a comical little creature. When I talk about him at work I always talk with my "Buddy voice." It's a bad imitation of how my nephew Zack's sounded when he was about five years old. Today at work, we had some new folks eating at our table and my friend Shae asked about Ol' Buddy. I slipped into my Buddy voice and commenced to giving her an update. When I gave Buddy's views on philandering politicians, one of the newbe's at the table got tickled and spewed Dr. Pepper out her nose.
I know the dog is spoiled worse than a first grand child, but after he got over sulking this evening he came to sit by me while we ate supper. He is very attentive when we eat. I can take my fork and without looking at him flip a piece of chicken off my plate and he catches it like Chipper Jones going after an infield line drive.
I know there are people who think I'm wacky for being crazy about a little dog..... for the most part, they would be correct. But all I can say is if they knew Ol' Buddy, I think they'd be crazy about him too.