Every Wednesday night, my husband and I hire a babysitter to hang with our kids for a few hours. Usually we go to yoga, but occasionally we go somewhere with free Internet and work from our laptops. Last night, we both felt like we had a lot of work to catch up on after the holiday break, so we decided to hunker down at Art Bar or Alterra.
To cocktail or not to cocktail is always the question during these “working dates.” Of course, at Art Bar we could down a couple of beers, which is always fun, but the Alterra option is healthier and cheaper. Neither of us felt strongly one way or the other, so we decided to “rock, scissors, paper” it out.
(On a side note, this system works very well for us, and some of our smallest and largest decisions have been made via this game, called “Rochambeau.” “Paper covers rock. Looks like we’re going to Conejito’s tonight!” “Paper smashes rock! OK, let’s get hitched!” You get the point.)
Anyway, his scissors cut my paper, so we ended up at Alterra on Humboldt. Finally, here’s where the story gets interesting.
First of all, flash back two days ago when a man came to our door and claimed he had our dog at his Holton Street house, which was two blocks’ away. He described the dog as an old brown Lab, which fits the description of our dog, Clay, so we thought maybe our dog had escaped from the backyard. Plus, our dog was sleeping in our neighbor’s yard, and is getting deafer as the days slip by, so he didn’t respond when we called to him.
But when my husband ran over to fetch our dog, he saw it wasn’t Clay, although it looked somewhat like him. All in all, we chalked it up to a weird experience, verbalized that we really hoped the dog returned to the right home and moved on.
So, back to Alterra. We walked into the café, and were face-to-face with a sign reading “Help! Lost Lab!” The sign went on to say that an 11-year-old brown Lab accidentally got out of his home, and had been missing for a week.
My husband immediately called the number, and told the woman he thought maybe the dog was at the house on Holton Street. He gave her the address because we didn’t have the number.
Later, he called the woman back to see what happened, and she said she went to the house and the owner said he had given up on finding the dog’s owners, called animal control that evening and they had come a mere 15 minutes earlier to pick up the dog. The woman got back in her car, went to animal control, paid the fine and was reunited with her pup.
She gushed into the phone that she was so thankful my husband made the connection and helped her find her missing dog. It was such an unexpected good deed and incredible combination of events, that we high-fived and bought a raspberry scone to celebrate.
Also, the experience firmed my belief in our “rock, scissors, paper” system. After all, his scissors cutting my paper might have saved a dog’s life.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
