HOW MANY LICKS DOES IT TAKE…

Just Joan

In the good old days, when lactose intolerance was yet unknown to me, and local businesses gave things away for free, the mister and I used to hop in the old VW Bus and putter downtown for soft-serve ice cream:

AT THE DAIRY FREEZE

The screen slides open
& out comes our order,
two super-sized cones
& a gratis puppy cone,
which our Lab devours.
Mimicking the sad face
of an emaciated orphan,
he eyes the twisty swirls
in our grip, mine… his…
attempting to discern
which of us is the sucker.
My husband caves first,
tilting his towering treat
toward the eager muzzle.
“Here Buddy, have a lick!”
Earnie’s jaws open wide
and crunch-munch-gulp!
it’s a done deal, leaving
one of us dumbfounded,
one laughing hysterically,
& one with brain freeze.

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13 thoughts on “HOW MANY LICKS DOES IT TAKE…”

  1. Tippy Gnu July 15, 2018 / 10:54 am

    Sounds like a dirty dog trick, to me. I don’t know how anyone can eat after a dog. My wife lets her dogs taste her food, too. It’s just disgusting. I can hardly stand to smell their breath, much less eat after them.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Just Joan July 15, 2018 / 2:43 pm

      Doesn’t bother me, Tippy. Dog kisses, bad breath and all, are a way of life at our house. Earnie (who passed away in 2014) was a chronically hungry black Lab who LOVED ice cream. It was ridiculous to think he would take a polite lick and relinquish the rest of the cone to its rightful owner, and yet… Have a great Sunday, go get some ice cream! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  2. K E Garland July 15, 2018 / 9:11 pm

    lol Happy National Ice Cream Day Joan! You just reminded me that I forgot to find a free cone somewhere.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Just Joan July 17, 2018 / 10:09 am

      What a coincidence, KE, I had no idea. Hope you got some ice cream and avoided brain freeze. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  3. L. T. Garvin, Author July 20, 2018 / 7:02 pm

    I can just picture Earnie on his ice cream adventure. Delightful poem, Joan! This reminds me of how much my grandmother and her husband loved their dog, Spot. He favored ice cream too.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Just Joan July 21, 2018 / 3:59 pm

      Thanks, Lana. Earnie was quite the ice cream aficionado; for him, a tiny “puppy cone” was a tease. He ate a lot of things he shouldn’t–chicken bones (fished out of the trash), a bag of chocolate chips and a box of raisins (both were open and waiting to be stirred into cookie batter), hot dogs (out of the hands of people who were waving them around and not paying attention), a whole loaf of white bread (pilfered from a grocery bag when I went out to the car to retrieve more bags), table scraps (hold on, weren’t there TWO eggs on this plate a minute ago?), etc. And he lived to tell, he was almost 16 when he passed away. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • L. T. Garvin, Author July 23, 2018 / 10:54 pm

        Earnie sounds like quite the dog. I had a lab once, it is no wonder they are the most popular dog in America. Very special for sure and hungry too 😀

        Liked by 1 person

  4. humanitiesphilosophy July 22, 2018 / 1:09 am

    this happy poem brought a tear to my Earnie (eye)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. Quirky Girl July 23, 2018 / 2:14 pm

    I’m sure that ice cream cone must’ve made Earnie’s day. 😀

    Jett has never experienced the joy of ice cream. At least, not to my knowledge… 😛

    Liked by 1 person

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