Did You Know William Shakespeare Invented The Word Watchdog?

Monday, October 8, 2007

I receive about forty-twelve emails a day. Most of which are nothing of note. Oh sure, from time-to-time I get the very exciting invitation to a project kick-off in the ever-so-glamorous first floor conference room. Not to mention the occasional inter-office announcement about the monthly birthday cake gathering. Jubilee!

But this morning my first email of the day gave me this tender scene:

Along with the tug-at-my-heartstrings tale of woe:

Six puppies need adoption ASAP.

Please contact Jennifer Bryan at jbryan@agsupply.com if interested.

Scott (my friend) rescued 6 black lab (mix) puppies out of the middle of the road on Saturday. PLEASE help me find them homes - otherwise, it's Animal Control, which means they only have 5 days.

We've bathed them, sprayed them for fleas and wormed them....but we can't keep them.

They are currently in a kennel in my basement since I don't have a fence. I've lost count of the number of rescue groups that I've contacted, only to be turned down due to no room. Please check with every dog person you know to see if they need a puppy.

I immediately forwarded the message to Donna. We've talked on-and-off about getting a younger sibling for The Bitch. Not too seriously, but every now and then we pine for a dog who isn't a neurotic, shakey, useless pooh machine and who might, instead, provide genuine and loyal companionship to our family.

At the same time, I sent an email to Jennifer, as instructed, to find out more about the puppies then proceeded to think of names for my new dog while I dreamed of driving through the countryside while he wagged his tongue out the open window of my pickup truck on my way to the lumber mill.

About the time I snapped out of my fantasy, I heard the familiar *DING* ring out when a new email arrives in my inbox. Message Undeliverable. Jennifer, it seemed, mistyped her email address, through her tears I imagined, in her plea for puppy rescue.

My next step was to respond to the co-worker who had sent me the message asking for her friend's actual contact information.

"Oh, I got the message sent to me from a friend. I think she knows Jennifer."

This is when I got suspicious. I should know better. I'm normally very skeptical about forwarded emails. Well, about almost everything, really. But this time my gullibility button had been pressed by puppies. Cute, sad, lonely, homeless puppies.

A quick search on Snopes gave me all the details I needed.

A genuine appeal that began as a Craigslist posting... but all the puppies have since been adopted...

There goes Craigslist causing trouble for my family again.

The note I sent to my co-worker's friend revealing the true source of the message was replied to with a most direct message.

That’s very mean! Sorry.

I hope she didn't mean me. I mean, I had already fantasized that Horatio would bring me my slippers and paper while I lounged in the den in my ascot while smoking my pipe. And that's not mean at all.

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Permanent Link: Did You Know William Shakespeare Invented The Word Watchdog?
Filed under: Misc | Technology

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