Are We There Yet? vol. 199

We’ve all heard the saying that “the dog ate my homework” as an excuse made by a student for not completing their work on time. Recently, a couple in Pittsburgh found that their beloved seven-year-old Goldendoodle, Cecil, consumed something more important than homework. Cecil ate the $4,000 in cash that they had withdrawn to pay a contractor at their house. The money had been left on the counter, and Cecil took over from there.

Their bank manager “explained that the bank would take back any bills that had been taped together with full serial numbers visible on the front and back.” After waiting for Cecil to do his “business” over the next several days and a lot of sanitizing, washing, and taping, they were able to piece together enough bills to recover $3,550 of the $4,000 eaten. I think this fact is more incredible than the dog eating the money in the first place.

I’m not sure what the moral of this story is—don't leave cash out on the counter, don’t have a dog, or the realization that money doesn’t actually digest easily—but it was finally a news story that made me smile. With all that’s going on in the world, a little levity is nice.

Take care and stay safe.

BOOK:

Devil Makes Three by Ben Fountain

Haiti, 1991. When a violent coup d’état leads to the fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, American expat Matt Amaker is forced to abandon his idyllic, beachfront scuba business. With the rise of a brutal military dictatorship and an international embargo threatening to destroy even the country’s most powerful players, some are looking to gain an advantage in the chaos–and others are just looking to make it through another day.

Desperate for money―and survival―Matt teams up with his best friend and business partner Alix Variel, the adventurous only son of a socially prominent Haitian family. They set their sights on legendary shipwrecks that have been rumored to contain priceless treasures off a remote section of Haiti’s southern coast. Their ambition and exploration of these disastrous wrecks come with a cascade of ill-fated incidents―one that involves Misha, Alix’s erudite sister, who stumbles onto an arms-trafficking ring masquerading as a U.S. government humanitarian aid office, and rookie CIA case officer Audrey O’Donnell, who finds herself doing clandestine work on an assignment that proves to be more difficult and dubious than she could have possibly imagined.