Togo Goes Naughty Knotting

It might surprise you to learn that I got into a lot of mischief when I was a youngster. Those “incidents” were on my juvenile record and, as I understand it, have technically been expunged from the FBI database. 

When I was about a year old, I had a fascination with the water hose. For the most part, it would just lie lazily on the lawn and beg me to play with it. And I did. A lot. And by playing, I mean I chewed on it. A lot.

Daddy explained to me that I was chewing on a Sears Craftsman water hose — one of the finest and most durable garden hoses ever made. Evidently, it was fairly pricey. Daddy further explained that four previous dogs had no incidents with water hoses and that I should see if I could be more like Cindy, Tipi, Snoopy, and Zoe in that regard. 

Being young and rebellious, I did not take kindly to Daddy’s suggestion. So Daddy bought a big box to put the hose in. This is what it looked like before I chewed on it some.

The whole idea was for the hose to stay inside the box so that I wouldn’t chew on it. I won’t go so far as to say that was a bad idea. But Daddy leaving the hose sticking out just a little was all the incentive I needed to pull the hose out of the box. It took me all day to do this.

When Daddy asked me about it, I tried to distract him by offering to play fetch with one of the neighbor’s tennis balls. Daddy just sighed and reeled the hose back into the box.

Daddy is a slow learner and he left the end of the hose sticking out again. So the next day, I spent the morning pulling the hose out, and then, to make it less conspicuous, I pulled the end of it across the yard to where we had a swing set. 

And then I pulled it back around again. It was at that point that I discovered one of my many gifts. Daddy had mentioned that he might let me be a Wolf Cub Scout someday. A quick search on the interweb revealed that Wolf Cub Scouts are all into knot tying. The seed was planted. It took me the rest of the afternoon but I eventually ended up with this. 

I don’t know if it’s a square knot or a bowline or a hitch. But I will tell you that it was a knot that was somewhat Daddy-resistant. Particularly when it is made from a Sears Craftsman water hose — one of the finest and most durable water hoses ever made.

Daddy captured this proud moment for both of us.

The moral of this story is to follow your dreams and do things you are good at. We discovered I was good at tying knots. And that Daddy was bad at storing water hoses. What great life lessons for us all!