Potato and Rice Dogsit

Potato's parents have a nice 11 year old dog, who's half-chocolate Lab and half-Shar Pei. He looks like a lab, but has some loose skin around the jowls and a spotted tongue. He's a very friendly and playful dog.

When Potato and Rice visit Potato's parents, the dog knows who give him the most attention upon visiting, Rice. Rice loves the dog, as she had never owned a dog in the past. The dog spends most of the time on his back, enjoying all the tummy rubs Rice gives him.

One time visiting, the dog had a small scratch on his nose and some minor damage to his tail. Potato's parents were on a four day trip to the East Coast, and placed the dog in a kennel.
Potato and Rice offered to dog sit next time they were going to be out of town.

So, recently, Potato's parents went away on a 10 day trip to the Motherland of the Potato, Ireland. Potato and Rice picked up the dog and wished Potato's parents a good trip.

Now, having a dog in the house is something new. Rice owns two cats, so the cats needed to be placed in their own room. The cats immediately knew something was up as there was a large brown sniffing machine outside their door. They sought higher ground and pretty much stayed there for 10 days.

Rice had ordered some items online and was expecting delivery. It is customary for our letter carrier to knock on the door when packages were left on the doorstep. Rice and the dog were hanging out one afternoon and there was a knock at the door. Rice thought "Ah, my packages" and went to open the door to retrieve them. The dog followed Rice to the door, as he does around the house. When she opened the door, the dog immediately started barking. There were no packages at the door, but two Mormons on their mission. Apparently, one fellow was scared of the dog, as he didn't say anything the whole time this conversation took place :

Dog : bark bark bark! (probably thinking "Hey! You're not Rice's packages!")

Mormon : Hello! I'm Elder so and so and this is Elder so and so.

Rice : Hello there!

Mormon : Well, we were walking through your neighborhood today ...

Dog : bark bark! Grrr! ("You're scaring away the deliveryman!")

Now Rice is non-religious, though knows the basics of pretty much all the world's religions. Potato's family is Catholic.

Rice : Ah, I see you're carrying a Book of Mormon, the revelations to Joseph Smith?

Mormon : I see you're familiar with it.

Dog : Grrr! bark bark! ("Didn't you hear me the first time?")

Rice : Well, not really, I know the basics.

Mormon : It's never to late to learn more about it, you know we could ...

At this point, Rice slightly loosens her grip on the dog's collar, causing him to jump slightly
and show off his teeth a little.

Dog : GRRRRR! bark! ("OK! I mean business!")

Rice : That would be interesting, but I don't think the dog would like it. He is a Catholic dog after all...

Mormon : Oh well, we should leave then.

Rice : Thanks for coming by.

Rice (to dog) : That's a good boy! (rubs dog's tummy)

Dog : (happy dog sounds)

Rice now has a greater appreciation of just how intelligent dogs are. Who would have known that dogs can tell the difference between deliverymen and not?