Jared waited for hours, his excitement about his careful message diminished somewhat by Wepwawet's untimely visit.
His mood changed for the better when his father pulled his car into the carport and exited the vehicle. Jared barked for attention, but his father, fancy leather briefcase in one hand, ignored him. Instead of passing through the backyard, his father walked around the house to collect the mail from the box at the curb.
"Dad!" Jared barked. "Come back! Look at the message! Please!"
A moment later, Jared's sensitive hearing picked up the sound of his father's black leather shoes on the paved sidewalk, followed by the sound of the front door closing as he entered the house. Jared could have howled from disappointment.
From inside the house, Jared detected the sonorous tones of a news anchor giving reports on the day's headlines. He decided to try patience. Eventually, his dad, or someone in the family, would come to the backyard and see the message.
Sure enough, his father stepped onto the lanai during a break in the news broadcast, phone in hand. He punched in a number and soon became engaged in a business conversation, giving Jared only a lopsided version of the conversation. Jared heard a lot of boring details about futures, earnings reports, and other financial lingo.
His father began to aimlessly pace through the yard, on a couple of times coming close to the doghouse, as he continued his conversation.
Each time his dad got close, Jared began wagging his hindquarters excitedly.
Finally, his father stopped at the side of the house while listening to the other participant in the phone call, which gave him time to notice the words scribbled in ink on the side of the house.
Jared saw him mouth each of the words... "Help. Not dog. Me Jared. Ask Kevin. He knows."
"What the hell?" Dad muttered. "Oh, no, not you, Sam. I think someone has gone to the trouble of vandalizing the damn doghouse in the backyard."
Jared had not, of all the imagined outcomes, expected that his father would simply dismiss the message as graffiti. He whimpered for attention.
"Not now, Shaggy," Dad spoke forcefully. "I'm on the phone."
His father made a closing comment. "That's good. See you in the morning, Sam."
Jared, thinking on his feet, or rather his paws, grabbed the ink pen in his jaws again. "If I add to the message while he watches, he will have to believe me!"
He started scratching on the wall, but no ink appeared.
"No!" Jared thought. He tried again, but got the same result. The pen was out of ink.
"What are you doing, Shaggy?"
His father reached down and took the saliva-covered pen from Jared's jaws. "Well, if that's not something. Looks like the vandal dropped the pen he used to deface your house, Shaggy," he said.
Jared whimpered, but his dad chuckled. "Doesn't say much for your skills as a watchdog, does it?" Dad asked.
Jared barked. "Dad! It's me!"
His father ignored the barking and studied the scrawl. He focused on the words "ask Kevin" instead of the other random phrases. "Maybe I'll wait and ask Kevin about this when he gets home," he said aloud.
"Ask me what?" Kevin asked as he opened the gate and walked into the yard, taking both Dad and Jared by surprise.