Gone To The Dogs

In January I took a journey to our mall. I don't remember the mission I was on but it must have been important enough to have drawn me back into this foreign mission field so soon after Christmas. It was the day I discovered that Eddie Bauer was closing. Now this is not an event demanding sack cloth and ashes but you need to know that after at least a two year absence of wearing jeans [no boycott intended] I found a pair I liked. A lighter shade of blue, relaxed fit and a 30 length. They were perfect. I could now prove to my family I was not a nerd and returned to the world of blue jeans.

My world view of malls, at least our local one, is that they have evolved into a community for those of the Junior and Sr. High School demographic. That's a fancy word for people much younger than me, a time now left to the ages, and waist sizes that are likely much smaller than the one purposefully left out of the afore mentioned blue jean statistics. Malls are for kids!

Now the final blow. The pet store is closing! At least a trip to the mall could be redeemd by a detour into the pet store to enjoy those over priced, too many in a cage, "would you please take me home" puppy dog looks.

I can't say that I ever bought a dog from a pet store in the mall. We got our dogs from families who took you into their garage to pick out your "favorite" from a large cardboard box, or ushered you into their kitchen where they proudly displayed the new litter while a roll of paper towels stood in readiness on the counter for the inevitable puddle. That's the kind of place where Mickey, Fritz, Sox 2, Austin and Bailey came from.

The pet store at the mall was a shopping respite, a place for smiles and seeing the world through a kid's eyes as they wresteld with the energy of a Beagle puppy. Maybe that was the problem. No one bought their dogs there. After all, the mall is for the youth and people who like a warm place to walk in the winter.

My reasons for going to the mall are quickly becoming trinitarian, kind of like my theology. Birthday, Anniversary and Christmas. Valentine's Day gets combined with the birthday. Not the gift, just the shopping trip. I'm not that cheap!

So, where does all of this meandering take us? What's on the end of this leash of loosley connected words and thoughts? Something very important. It's a final thought about our mall, a closing statement about the pet store and an expression layered in meaning.

"Gone to the dogs!!!!"