But My Dog Did Eat My Homework

Have you ever used that excuse at school? We all know it wasn't the truth, was it? And you don't even have a dog!

I never used that excuse for a couple of reasons. First, we didn't have a dog that lived inside the house when I was a kid. Secondly, if I didn't do my homework, the teacher would most certainly inform my parents, and that would not go over well. Especially with my father.

I learned early on that lying to my father would never work. I don't know exactly how he knew I was not telling the truth, but he knew. Maybe it was my facial expressions. Maybe it was my body language, since I would most likely be shaking as I'm weaving a trail of mistruths.

Well, today, using an excuse of my dog ate my homework would have come in handy. That is if I was still in school and was in chorus. Inside my bedroom closet is a bag of sheet music. Normally, the bedroom is off limits to my Italian Greyhound when I'm not home.

But this week, I was trying an experiment leaving the dog gate to the bedroom open, so he could have another room to explore when I'm at work. Well by accident, the closet door was open just a tiny bit. Enough for him to discover a bag of sheet music. If it's something that looks edible, my Italian Greyhound will find it.

I have a security system that scans the inside of my house, and during one of my daily scans, I could see my Italian Greyhound in the bedroom eating something that he had trashed all over the floor. I ran out of my office for home, worried that it might be something that could injure him. When I arrived at home and into the bedroom, there he was, looking up at me happily with pieces of paper in his mouth.

He had managed to shred several pieces of sheet music all over the floor. The sheet music had been buried in a bag in my closet for several years. I forgot it was even there. He thought it was funny. I did not.

And that was the end of my experiment allowing my Italian Greyhound access to the bedroom when I'm not home. Still, it would have been a great real excuse for not practicing singing as a homework assignment if I was still in school and taking a chorus class.