who said debbie is a downer?

hattie was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease last summer.  at six years old she has become quite an expensive pet.  years ago troy had a basset hound who was also an expensive dog.  this is one of the topics we were discussing with our neighbors last night over adult beverages.  debbie asked troy where he got the basset hound.  he had purchased it at a mall pet store.  which turned our conversation to the depletion of these types of pet stores.  you rarely see pet stores in malls anymore.  most likely because such establishments earned the reputation for ill treatment/care of the animals and for selling dogs acquired from puppy mills.

then the topic turned to debbie's petland (one such store that had been at the south shore plaza years ago.)  and debbie shares, "i once got a hamster there.  when we got it home i looked at it closely and realized it wasn't right.  i took it to my mother and told her 'mom, this hamster isn't right.' and i turned it around so my mom could look at it.  it had these bulges on it's butt.  they were like cysts.  so we took it back to debbie's petland.  the kid working behind the counter looked the hamster over.  then he told me there was nothing wrong with it.  it was a boy hamster."

[insert hysterical laughter]

while saying our goodbyes debbie realized their dog ollie had a red ticket stub stuck to his side.  she plucked it off of him and exclaimed,  "oh! i need that!  bj's is giving away a pearl necklace, so i had to buy a ticket!"

[insert more hysterical laughter]

as we are walking out the back door debbie looks at the tall tree in the backyard and proclaims, "we really need an adult swing out here."

[insert even more hysterical laughter]