Talking Dog For Sale

A guy is driving around the back woods of Montana and he sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: "Talking Dog For Sale" He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog is in the backyard.

The guy goes into the backyard and sees a nice looking Labrador retriever sitting there.

"You talk?" he asks.

"Yep," the Lab replies.

After the guy recovers from the shock of hearing a dog talk, he says "So, what's your story?" The Lab looks up and says, "Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA. In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping."

"I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years running. But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger so I decided to settle down.

I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in.

I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals. "I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired."

The guy is amazed.

He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.

"Ten dollars," the guy says.

"Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?"

"Because he's a liar. He never did any of that stuff."

There are some slight variations to this fictitious and humorous story but the moral remains the same. I am not sure if it was intended to teach a lesson but I have found a few in it.

Firstly, the dog’s owner failed to see the value of the dog; all he saw was a liar. He had a dog who could talk but because he lies he thought he was a worthless, good-for-nothing lying dog. He didn’t see that this dog had the potential to become something of value to him. That is the problem with many people, they look at us and they can’t see beyond the obvious. They only see what we are now, and judge us accordingly.

Secondly, the owner may not have realized that the dog was expressing a desire all these years, and with a little help his dreams could have been realized. Sometimes people fantasize unfilled dreams, some lie about accomplishments to impress others or to get attention and acceptance from the group. This is not a healthy practice and we must learn to accept who we are. If we have friends like that we must seek to help them in their aspirations as far as possible. We must learn to listen to their ‘exaggerations’ and see if we can help them to separate facts from fiction, guiding them in doing what is right.

By the way, if you see a talking dog anywhere, don’t hold any conversation with him; he could be a spy, working for the government.