This past weekend my mom was in the kitchen cooking and Zoe was right by her side “helping” in any way she can – or saw fit to do – which usually means she is going to jump up on the counter and eat everything in sight if one was to turn their back on her.
That was the setting this weekend, but before I go on to what happened on this occasion, I thought I should take a moment to tell a historical story – one that may have been told back when Montana was dictating these blogs – but is relevant to this edition. Of course, this is all based on what Sammy told me since by the time I was a part of the pack, his counter surfing days were behind him. In short, as he told it, every time my parents were in the living room and he thought he could sneak some food bits off the kitchen countertop, they would yell at him to get down. For a long time he had no idea how they always caught him since he was being so stealthy. Then one day, as he feint* sleeping, he heard them snickering – nay, laughing that gut cramping type of chuckle that can keep going as one person seems to be starting to catch themselves but then gets a second (or third) fit because someone else in the room is still in mid guffaw. As it turns out, they could always tell when he got up on the counter because the change of pressure on his GI tract would cause the release of some gas. In other words, when he reared up to get his front paws on the ledge, a fart would be released, signalling our parents that he was misbehaving – thus the “Sammy get down!”
So back to this weekend. On this occasion, I was sitting at the table being well behaved and awaiting the food to be brought to the table – despite having already been fed my kibble:
The I heard something in the kitchen (which is on my right):
I saw the smirk on the Scribes face, took a sample of the air quality, and then both dad and I burst out laughing: apparently Sammy and Zoe have something in common. In this case, it clued mom into the fact that the meal being prepared was in danger of being consumed by Zoe.
After, we (dad and me) got control of ourselves – Zoe still clueless about how she got busted – dad turned from Scribe to Storyteller. As it turns out, one of the most salient memories of his (my dads) youth was when his father (my far-far) had one of those breath stealing laughing fits while watching a scene from a show I have never seen, but which apparently was popular at some point in the last millennia.
My point: farts are funny, last weekend, a decade ago, and even pre-2000…even to someone who was once a Methodist minister.
The Tempest
Feel free to watch the whole episode but the relevant part to this blog entry starts around the 11 minute mark.
Montana Moments 