parky Bites

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

The Baron’s chief advisor, Professor Hamblin, was formerly of Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England. One of the Professor’s associates retired a few years ago and moved to Lilliland. His wife became ill and had to spend a good deal of time in the hospital. She would have to remain there for some time. That left the Professor’s friend, Professor Hopkins, alone with only his small pet dog, Sparky.

The Professor was often invited to Professor Hamblin’s home. It was more convenient to have Professor Hopkins visit Professor Hamblin than the opposite.

Professor Hopkins felt very sad about getting older because no one came to visit him anymore. Professor Hamblin knew the real reason why friends began staying away from Professor Hopkins, but did not want to tell him because it might hurt his feelings.

After a while, Professor Hamblin thought that he should say something. He said, “The reason why the people may be shying away from visiting you is not because of you, but the way that Sparky behaves.”

He continued, “When friends walk in the door, Sparky starts barking and no one can hear what the other person is saying. Then when someone attempts to quiet Sparky, the dog turns and bits the guest in the leg. It is not very painful, just annoying. Why don’t you keep the dog in another part of the house while you are entertaining guests? It seems that Sparky gets jealous of your guests and drives them away. You are so used to having Sparky around that you hardly notice his behavior until it is too late and the guest leaves, mostly because of Sparky.”

The vet said the Sparky was very high strung and missed the Professor’s wife, and that a walk in the evening might be helpful to calm Sparky down.

Professor Hopkins was relieved to know that it was not something he was doing wrong, but the misbehavior of his little dog, Sparky.