Drip, Drip

I like to take a lazy few minutes just lying in bed when I wake up in the morning.  This particular morning, I was mulling over the day ahead when I became conscious of a faint but ominous sound--"Drip! (pause)  Drip!  (pause) Drip!"

 OMG!  Where was this drip coming from?  What was leaking?  A pipe?  A faucet?  The water heater?  Visions of plumbers and their bills filled my head. 

Oddly, the faint sound seemed to be coming from outside, through a window.  But how could this be?  Panic set in. Something big time. The water main!  The sewer line!

I got up to investigate.  Of course, once I did, the sound receded, drowned out by the cat at the back door meowing to be let in.  But when I opened that door, there the sound was again, even louder.  But hosanna!  NOT "Drip!" but something entirely different--"Yip! (pause) Yip!  (pause) Yip!"  It was the neighbor's little dog barking wildly at something--a squirrel, a sparrow, a leaf--over in their backyard on Walnut Street.  Jasper, the tiny Shih Tsu, known far and wide in the neighborhood as "that little shit."  I could have kissed his ugly little face.  No more leak!  No more plumber's bills!  It was JUST JASPER!

May all my worries turn out like this.  Not a drip.  Just a yip.