Today’s post is graciously written by Earnest the Pig. Mrs. Dunn edited his copy to ensure it was accurate. This is her latest from her monthly column Tails & Tales.
It felt like a usual morning. The sun rose, the rooster crowed, the dogs barked. But when I heard the front door of the house open, and close, I didn’t hear the sounds indicating Mrs. Dunn was coming with my breakfast.
And in fact, my breakfast did not come as usual. Nor did anyone else’s.
“Earnest, where is Mrs. Dunn?” asked Pickles.
Hannah came running out to the conversation.
“Is she dead?” she cried.
“Oh child, she’s not dead. I saw her leave early this morning with Mister Dunn,” said Poetry the wise elder goat.
“Maybe she found Her Imaginary House By The Sea and she’s left for good,” said Puddles, always one to create some angst.
“Mrs. Dunn would not abandon us,” said Auntie Bea, another elder goat.
Just then, we heard the familiar sound of a truck pull in, and then the front gate slid open and there was Mrs. Dunn. We all ran to the gate to greet her.
“You really are alive!” said little Hannah, near tears.
“It seems I am,” said Mrs. Dunn. “I had to go the hospital to have a procedure, but everything is fine,” she said, as she began to get our breakfast.
I put my arm around her, and said, “Mrs. Dunn, are you really okay?”
The animals all stood in silence, waiting for Mrs. Dunn to answer. “Earnest, I’m fine. I had what they call a routine screening colonoscopy.”
The newly arrived baby goat, Pancakes, jumped up on Mrs. Dunn and asked, “What is a color house copy?
“Colonoscopy. Well, it’s like a hose that’s coiled up in my body, and it takes the food I eat out of my body,” Mrs. Dunn said. “They use a magnifying glass to make sure it’s healthy.”
I grabbed the garden house and coiled it up on the ground, and then drew a body. I explained to everyone how our food is digested and the leftovers have to come out.
“A human colon is about five feet long,” I told them. “That’s a little shorter than Mrs. Dunn.
Everyone gasped, including Mrs. Dunn.
“But where does the food go,” asked Pickles.
“Well, it gets made into poop, and then you poop,” Mrs. Dunn said.
“So let me get this straight,” said Puddles. “Mrs. Dunn has a five foot long garden hose inside her body and it makes poop?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Dunn and I said in unison.
Hannah screamed.
“But your color house copy is okay, it’s not sick?” Hannah asked.
“My colonoscopy was normal, and it’s okay,” Mrs. Dunn reassured Hannah.
Mrs. Dunn returned to the house and we all enjoyed our breakfast. We were happy Mrs. Dunn was in fact alive and that her garden hose was healthy.
“So, if Mrs. Dunn has a garden hose in her body, does she have other stuff, like shovels?” asked Puddles.
And Hannah ran to the barn crying.
