I just love Halloween. I love everything about it — from all of the interesting people that stop by to handing out goodie bags to all of the neighborhood kids. It’s also fun to race to the front door once the bell goes off. By my account, I have a winning record against Jaxon. I also need to beat him to the door because I cannot let him hand out candy unsupervised. It would be a mess.
People love chocolate, but it’s bad for dogs. We really love popcorn. Sometimes we include apple crisps or something else with the popcorn, so we can get away with saying the goodie bag is full of natural and healthy snacks.
Unfortunately, we live in a small neighborhood, so the Halloween traffic can be a little light in the best of years. With the pandemic, we heard stories that no one would come by for a visit. We figured that we needed to put special treats in our goodie bags to get more traffic. With a lot of stores closed for the pandemic, could we even find a store that would sell a couple of good dogs some candy?
As luck would have it, we travel a lot. Sometime ago we happened to be in Humboldt, Kansas and discovered the Bijou Confectionary shop. That pic above is us gathering supplies for the trip. We didn’t get a chance to stop at the time, but we never forget a place where we might get a few treats. Fortunately, we found our notes on the trip and called up this Bijou Confectionary Shop to see if they could help us out. We talked with Beth, and she put together a big box of salt water taffy, gummy bears, and some candies that looked like blue robin’s eggs. Birds drive Jaxon insane, so I had to keep him away from the robin’s eggs. The treats arrived in a couple of days, faster than if we walked back from Kansas on our own. It’s really no where near our neighborhood at all.
As lead dog, I assigned Jaxon a few tasks, mostly just staring our the window and looking for any sign of activity. Once the doorbell rang, he completely forgot the plan. He ran all over the house jumping on tables, chairs, countertops or anything he could find. He seemed to be having one hell of a parkour run. If our behavior was scored just on our organizing skills, the night seemed to be turning into a total disaster.
By 7:00 PM, we only had 3 visitors, and I was starting to get concerned about the light turnout. I wanted this to be a special Halloween for Jaxon so he gets started on this important tradition in the right way. When it was pitch black outside and the streets were dead quiet, Jaxon suggested we scrape together a sign offering “free candy.” I pretended not to hear that because I didn’t have the heart to tell him it would scream “desperation!”.
Just when we were ready to pack it in, the doorbell rang. Wow, one more! A few minutes later, another ring! Every time, just as we managed to return to a soft spot to rest, we had to jump up and bark with excitement. In all of the activity, we didn’t keep track of everything we handed out, but by the time we shut the lights off, we gave away all of our Bijou candy. From the first to the last visitor, every one was very appreciative, and I think after a rough start we handled ourselves very well. By the end of the night, we were exhausted and ready for a nap. Running around and barking non-stop can be very tiring.
A few days after Halloween we received this nice message:
I recall visiting a house on Halloween as a young pup and was given treats bigger than my entire body. It has stuck with me to this day. I always remembered that house, and even long after when I had grown up from being a puppy, that house was the “it” house, a place I always passed with fond and cherished memories. You have become my new “it” house.
That type of appreciation made all of our hard work worthwhile. We didn’t set out to be the “it” house. We didn’t even know one existed. But with some hard work, we put smiles on a few faces. After being proclaimed the “it” house, we earned an honor we never dreamed of receiving. Thanks to these kids and the nice thank you letter, Jaxon thinks we put on an incredible show. We are still laughing about how our view went from disappointment to victorious excitement once the doorbell rings started to stream in.
Can a call from a Hollywood awards show be far off? We’re waiting by the phone, looking out the window. Maybe we should go back to Kansas and get a few more treats. Better yet, let’s get an agent. First things first!
I can’t believe that I’m going to say it, but there’s never a dull moment with the puppy Jaxon in the house.
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