Take Me Out to the Ball Game

When I was a little puppy, my puppyraiser used to put a baseball cap on me and tell me that someday, when I was older, she would take me to a baseball game. This past summer I was finally old enough! I went to my very first baseball game with my puppyraiser and her guy friend. What an adventurous night it was!

A smorgasbord of food smells permeated the air and floor. I'm talkin' peanuts, cracker jacks, cotton candy, pretzels... and best of all, hotdogs! Of course, since I'm in training to be an assistance dog, I could have none of it. What a lesson in self-control that was!

There were some people down on the field playing with a baseball. They would throw the ball and catch the ball and run around. Dang, it looked like fun! But, the weird thing is that of all of the people at the ballgame, only a few were actually playing. The rest of the people sat up in the stands and just watched! It didn't make sense to me at all. I thought that maybe all of these people were in training to do something like me... maybe they were going to be assistance people. My puppyraiser tried to explain to me that this wasn't the case. She said the people in the stands were just watching the game for fun. But, I still didn't get it.

Towards the end of the game, we were walking around and my puppyraiser and her guy friend started talking about how cool it would be if they could get a photo of me with Dinger. I had no clue what a Dinger was, but I thought sure, why not. After all, I'm always up for a photo opp. But, then before I knew it, a GIANT... and I mean GIANT cat walked up to us. It was the biggest, scariest cat I have ever seen in my entire life! I'm talkin' nightmare-ish size! I took one look at that thing and ducked behind my puppyraiser and no amount of coaxing was going to get me to come out. My puppyraiser finally mumbled, "uhhhh... never mind... the photo is not going to happen" and we walked away. But, I kept looking back to make sure the giant cat monster didn't follow us.

I've been to baseball games a few times since then. And fortunately the giant cat monster wasn’t anywhere near us. Although a few times, I thought I saw him gyrating and dancing around in the distance. To this day, I sometimes have nightmares about him. I’ll be sound asleep at work, and start dreaming he’s chasing me. I start groaning in my sleep and my paws start moving like I’m running. My puppyraiser then gives me a little shake and tells me it’s ok and I can hear her co-workers laughing in the background. I stretch and yawn feeling so relieved it was just a nightmare. Then, I fall back asleep and start dreaming about happier things, like hotdogs and peanuts and playing with baseballs. And, the happy ball game song plays in the background...

"Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,
I don't care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, your out,
At the old ball game."