Outsmarted

The last few days have been unusually lazy for us, first because I threw out my back putting out the Christmas yard decorations, second because Mother Nature decided to douse us. Through it all, Ladybug was rather patient with our indoor status – perhaps taking a hint something was amiss when I stayed in pajamas for two days.

So today, with no rain and less pain, I was restless to get out of the house. So was Ladybug, who every few minutes would bring me my shoes and say, “Walk, walk.” But we were expecting a couple Christmas packages to be delivered and, being anxious to receive them, waited until the final one arrived before heading out to the mall.

By then it was an hour before Ladybug’s bedtime, and common sense was telling me that we should just postpone our outing until tomorrow. But when I get an idea in my head, I’m kind of stubborn. And to be honest, Ladybug was most obliging.

The problem is, when she gets tired she doesn’t get cranky or listless. She gets completely wound up and doesn’t listen, as the customers in JC Penney quickly noticed when Ladybug darted off in between the racks of clothes and disappeared.

My husband and I dashed off behind her, one going left, the other going right. Ladybug emerged from a rack of pants, bumped into my husband’s legs and jumped into a neighboring rack of sweaters. This time she ran into me. As I tried to grab her, she dropped down on her knees and crawled under the dangling blouses, my husband and I groping for her fuzzy collar as we pushed the hangers out of the way. Missed her again.

When she finally popped up, she was cornered against a wall. My husband scooped her up, Ladybug in absolute ecstasy over her brief triumph over our attempts to catch her.

We told her we would go home if she didn’t behave, so she agreed to stay by our side and walk slowly. And we believed her. But it didn’t take long before Ladybug was running through the mall again, waving her hands over her head with a gleeful “Aaaaahhhhh!” and ducking into another store for a repeat of the previous adventure.

It was time to admit defeat and head home, lesson learned the hard way.