It's official: I'm free!

Continuing my personal relationship with the Wellesley Police Department (more on that later), I was more than delighted to have a visit from Animal Control Officer Sue Webb yesterday morning.
Though she did interrupt my morning nap, I was thrilled to have her drop by.

I received Officer Webb in my boudoir, which Mom fortunately had picked up, leaving only, quite appropriately, the carcass of a once-stuffed fox draped on my blanket.

Presumably satisfied that I was not foaming at the mouth or otherwise showing evidence of derangement and disease from rabies, Officer Webb proclaimed the end of my 45-day quarantine. I am officially a totally free dog!

Lest, dear reader, you think I erred in some way to deserve being cast from society for more than a month, I offer a brief explanation, styled after Mom's esteemed Boston College English professor John L. Mahoney:

August 12, 2013. Natick, Massachusetts. An early morning. 8 a.m., in fact. Sunny, but cool. A mother, brown hair in a ponytail, and her child are playing on the playground at the Lilja Elementary School, accompanied by their furry, brown dog.

The evidence, now healed. My psyche, not so much.

I venture to meet the canine. He is tied to the fence. Seemed friendly enough. Suddenly, his tail went stiff. I find myself caught in a deadly bear hug. My neck has been chomped and I am bleeding.

Result: in the clink (sort of) for a month and a half, because I didn't know whether the biter was rabies-free. In the meantime, I'm getting a "not friendly" reputation because Mom hasn't let me meet other dogs. I hope that now I'm cleared we can repair that. I'd be happy to pass on this undeserved reputation to the dog who bit me. If I ever find him.