The Molly Chronicles

           

 They say that there's always love on the road, and in Shadow's case it was absolutely true.  Many was the night when Shadow hung a tie on the knob of his hotel room door indicating that he did not want to be disturbed.

            One groupie  in  particular, Leticia the Rottweiler, developed quite a crush on Shadow, and followed our team bus from city to city. I didn't trust that she-dog,  not for a minute. Suddenly Shadow began skipping practices, claiming that he needed to visit a sick grandmother.

            One night I walked into his hotel room with a Beggin' Strip for a peace offering, and there he was, on the floor with Leticia, their noses half-buried in a liver-snack bucket. Shadow jumped up, startled. He pointed his tail straight to the ceiling - a doggies sign of dominance. And he snapped at me, and  growled, and gestured with his paw toward the door.

             I left, but from the hallway I could hear Leticia's voice, smarmy and oily. "Oh, Shadow, you don't need all that practice, and you certainly don't need that stupid Border Collie. You're the star of the team. Everyone knows it. You're famous now, but I could make you a super star. I have the connections. I know all the big wigs in Hollywood. Think of it - Nike commercials, guest appearances with Jay Leno, maybe even a movie. You'd be bigger than Lassie, or Rin Tin Tin, or  Spuds MacKenzie. Heck, you'd even be bigger than Snoopy.  I can see it now - Oscar night, you up on  the stage hugging the Oscar in your paws. 'This award really belongs to Leticia the Rottweiler without whose encouragement...' "

            How could Shadow fall for that..that pack of squirrel chatter? Where was the Shadow that I used to know? Where was the puppy-like innocence?  The ecstatic, tail-thumping delight in slobbery balls?  I couldn't listen to any more of it. I walked back to my room and consoled my heavy heart with a well-chewed piece of rawhide.

            The next day, Shadow and I had it out. "We're a team," I told him. "We work as a team. We play ball as a team. And when you grandstand, and skip practice to play chase the Rottweiler,  you're no good to the Red Sox, and you're no good to yourself. As for that Leticia, that...that...Spaghetti-Letty, she doesn't care about you. She's nothing but a cheap liver-snack digger!"

            Shadow dropped his head because he knew I was right. After that, he acknowledged his fans, but never let fame go to his head. And that's when his career skyrocketed.