When I was a teenager I had a poodle named Beulah May.  The dog’s name came from a Dick Gregory   album entitled, “Dick Gregory talks Turkey.”   On a Saturday morning I answered the door bell.  There was a man in a uniform on the porch.   I called out, “mom the postman is here.  He replied I am not a postman.  I am an officer of the law!  My mother came to the door and he said, “Is that your dog?”  He was pointing to my dog.   My mother replied, “Yes, it is.”   I called the dog to me and he came shooting up the stairs through the postman’s legs.  He was left staring at his empty hands as the puppy has just been too fast for him to catch.  At this time I noticed that the neighbors across the street were sitting in the lawn chairs, drinks in hand, laughing loudly.

    The dogcatcher announced that he would be citing my mother for having a dog without a license.   My mother pointed out that the dog being only three weeks old was at the time to young to get her shots and hence could not get a license.  That could not happen for another three weeks.  The dogcatcher then turned several shades of blue and announced that he would cite my mother for dangerous dog at large.  My sister was home with some of her friends from college listening to this.  They were roaring in laughter.  Here is a three week old puppy that didn’t bite and would easily get lost in your lap and she was being declared a public menace.   He wound up writing a citation before he left.  He said next time someone would go to jail. My mother replied, “With or without the dog?”  The citation was later dismissed.

   The neighbors across the street later told us that the dogcatcher had spent a couple of hours trying to catch the dog and they had broken out the lawn chairs to watch the show.