In Which Henry Guest Lectures at DTS...Inadvertantly

(If you work in either the AV or Video Editing departments at DTS, stop reading this post right now and close the window. And probably Pastor Steve, too. If you didn't like the symphony one, you probably won't like this one, either.)

This is Henry. He is our dog/firstborn.Joey needed to stay late tonight and run the sound and video for a class being taught at the Houston extension that was live broadcast at the Dallas campus. (A bunch of technical stuff that I don't understand.) He requested that I come visit him and bring Burger King with me.

As the class ran from 6-10 p.m., I decided I'd better do it if I wanted to see my husband this evening. So I went home, got a book, grabbed Henry (can't leave the kid at home unattended, right?) and we were off to Burger King.

I should mention here that getting Burger King with a dog in the car can prove to be an insurmountable task, if said dog likes the smell of french fries. Oh my word.

We arrived at DTS with Chippy (Henry's toy), my book, the Burger King and 3 waters in hand. We were prepared to stay for awhile, and Henry was freaking out. (I think he remembered the last time he was at DTS and took over Joey's entire department.)

Henry and I sneakily made our way to Campbell (although he was drawing an atrocious amount of attention from female students lounging in the grass; it's hard to be covert that way) and walked in as though we were supposed to be there.

I was, actually. It's just we never asked if Henry could go. (However, I'm not sure what I was so afraid of.)

Joey met us in the hall and scuttled us into the audio room that's just off the side of the classroom. He shut the door behind us. We ate our dinner and talked for awhile, until Henry made a little whining sound.

"He's got to go outside," I said.

"Um...can he wait?" The class had just gone on break. "There's a lot of people in the hall right now."

I waited a few minutes, but Henry whined again. "No, it doesn't appear that he can. I'll go out the back door." I said.

So Henry and I slinked out.

We'd have gotten in without detection, too, but there were two stragglers coming back from break who saw Henry and I coming back inside. They gave us a strange look which, actually, I don't blame them for.

Now that Henry was all relieved, he was really energetic. Every time Joey would leave to go adjust the sound (both classrooms, Dallas and Houston, had mics and video cameras on them, that way everybody could see and hear everyone else) Henry would sit at the door and whine.

Rather loudly.

Joey would come in again and Henry would be fine, but every time Joey left Henry got more and more excited. Fortunately he hadn't tried running out the door with Joey and into the classroom across the way (mortification!), but the classroom door was open so I was always afraid he would try it.

Henry sat at the door on High Alert waiting for Joey to come back in. He was so intense he wasn't even wagging his tail. Finally Joey opened the door, shut it, and walked over to his chair.

Henry groveled on the ground, wagging his tail so fast I thought he was going to wag it right off. Then....

BARK! BARK!! BARK!!!

I have never heard Henry bark so loudly before. Joey and I scrambled to pick him up and make him be quiet.

"Do you think they heard that?" I asked. Although, how could they not? Their door was open and we were probably 25 feet away, although the door was closed. They were Very Loud Barks.

At any rate, I soon packed Henry up and headed for home. No sense Henry barking again and the prof (in Houston) asking "Is there a dog in here?" to his students in Dallas.

Aside from the excessively loud barking, Henry was a positive angel while he was there. He didn't get into anything or cause any other trouble...aside from the barking. Which was pretty naughty.

As we were leaving, the janitor walked by. He was a large, tough-looking man.

"Oh my word, what a cute puppy!" He exclaimed, looking at Henry.

"Yeah, he's pretty great." I said.

"Was he going to class?" The janitor asked with a smile.

"Nope, just visiting Daddy; he's running the sound and video for the class down the hall so we brought him dinner." I replied, wondering what I'd been so afraid of in the first place. He obviously didn't care if Henry was in the building. (Henry IS 75% human, after all.)

"That's great, that's great..." The janitor said, and walked off, still smiling and chuckling to himself.

And, thus, Henry has had yet another successful foray onto the DTS campus. Hopefully next time he keeps his furry little mouth shut!