Not Guilty! Well, Sort Of

     The verdict is in.  Actually it isn't in because the decision has been given a continuance until
all parties could be present and the correct case could be presented.  The hope is that the case won't be actually heard by the judge, but the two parties could come together with the mediator and decide on a fair resolution.  At this point, this is going to be the case-- hopefully.
     You never know about the American Judicial system.  It is a good one and in most cases it gets it right.  Sometimes though, it completely misses the boat and something happens that just doesn't make any sense. I am not being specific here, and I definitely will not state an opinion about today's Supreme Court rulings as I am not here to be very profound.  According to Denise I can never be profound as my brain does not work that way. But given the system, it works in most cases. (O.J. Simpson?)
     Here is what happened.  Seth's dog Maya-I forgot, Seth is Denise's 19 year old son- got out of the back yard and ran free. She is an Alaskan Huskie, and a pretty big one at that.  Maya is a good tempered dog but likes to play with smaller animals and doesn't know her own strength.  The dog is sort of like Lennie in Of Mice and Men. ( Do you like how I threw that literary reference in there? Wow, sometimes I amaze myself. Off topic again, sorry that is just my brain working again.). Sometimes she doesn't know when enough is enough and crosses some strict societal boundaries of accepted behavior. After all, she is a dog.
     As it turns out, Maya saw a chihuahua which lived down the street and decided to play football with it, using the chihuahua as the football.  Huskies don't have hands to grasp the football, so she used her mouth to hold tightly onto the football-uh chihuahua.  When Maya scored a touchdown, she decided to spike the ball-uh chihuahua-for the victory. The ball-uh chihuahua-didn't quite do well physically with this.
     After expending all this energy scoring a touchdown and then doing her victory spike, she was hungry.  There were no hot dog stands close by so she decided to use the closest thing, the ball-uh chihuahua. She didn't do it malisciously (where's that dikshunary?), she is a dog after all.  The bottom line was Maya 1, the ball-uh chihuahua-0.
     The ball-uh, chihuahua-was taken to the vet where a $800 plus veterinarian bill was incurred by the ball's-uh, chihuahua's-owner for repairing the injuries caused by Maya.  I think that you can see where this is going.  Who was responsible for this and who was going to pay the bill?
     Denise was served with papers to appear in small claims court.  I won't go into many details of what happened before and after she was served because my fingers are getting tired from typing and I am running out of words and ideas as to how to make this more humorous. I will cut to the chase-that was bad.  At any rate, as I said before, Maya is not Denise's dog.  She is Seth's dog.  The owners of the ball-uh chihuahua-were suing the wrong person.  They were suing Denise, who is not responsible for the dog or her actions because it is not her dog.  The dog could not be sued because-well-she's a dog. Like many people in our entitlement generation, she is not responsible for her actions.
    The mediator explained to the plaintiffs that they had two

This is not Maya after the incident.  It is my son and don't worry , its only make believe.

options.  First, they could go through the time and expense of re-filing their action naming Seth as the defendant.  The second option was that they could meet with Seth and discuss the matter, and Seth could make arrangements to reimburse them for the $800 Vet bill.  This was the route that was taken,with Denise telling the mediator that she would talk to Seth and have him in court on another day.  Basically, the case did not go before the judge but was delayed until we could talk to Seth and come to an agreement, keeping it out of the court.
     We live in a great country.  Disputes can be settled in a civil manner without anyone getting hurt or angry.  I wonder what the ball-uh chihuahua-thinks about this.