March

Five years ago Seth’s yellow lab named Kona, who loves to fetch tennis balls, developed a “fatty” looking bulge right by his stomach. It started out small and then got very large. It was perfectly round and looked like a small ball was under his skin. The vet said that this “fatty” type tissue is common in Labradors and would go away over the next few weeks.

When people asked “What is wrong with your dog?” the response I would give jokingly was that he swallowed a tennis ball.

Seth took the story a little further. The mom of one of his friends came over and asked Seth what had happened to our dog. Seth told her that Kona had swallowed a tennis ball. The mom was shocked. She was so fascinated that she told the story at a family party and discussed it with a lot of people.

When she came back to our house a few weeks later and the bump was gone, she asked Seth what happened to it. He told her that we had taken Kona to the vet and the vet had given our dog special medicine to have him “poop” the ball out. She asked how the tennis ball looked when it came out. He replied, “Well, like a tennis ball with poop on it.” She believed every word he said.

My wife, Jami, was at a neighborhood function and someone came up to her and asked how our dog was doing. Apparently many people were quite concerned about our dog that had swallowed the tennis ball. I was on a business trip and Jami called me that night to tell me about Seth’s elaborate story. She was laughing so hard she could barely get the words out.
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Seth had to apologize for being dishonest to his friend’s mom and was very embarrassed to do so. Thankfully, she thought it was just as funny as we did. Seth learned a good lesson about being honest.
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