Seeing a man about a dog...

This is a term we use in the south and although not overly common, it is know well by those that use it. I've mostly heard it used by rural men and maybe you'll understand as we go along.

Every once in a while I just need to get away. You know, get out of the house, get away from chores, get away because you need to cool off or you just need an excuse to get some ice cream. Well, whenever those situations come up I just tell the family "I need to see a man about a dog". Then I take off for an hour or two and get my ice cream or whatever. I think the term came up in the south when men needed to "get away". So they'd say they needed to see a man about a dog. A hunting dog. Hunting with dogs is big in the south. With me so far?

Now, to really understand this, we have 4 dogs. No, they don't hunt unless you call begging for food hunting. Well, we did have a cock-a-poo-terrier that hunted moles in the yard, but that was a long time ago. Anyway, stay with me. Actually, four of us have 1 dog each and my wife has 4. In reality, we have all of them together. So, you can see that telling the family you are "going to see a man about a dog" might stir things up. And it did. That is how the true meaning of the phrase got discovered. I used it once too often and did not come home with a dog.

Well, questions arose, dodging did not work, "what kind of dog, daddy?", "when do we get him, daddy?", "how many dogs, daddy?"... well it just would not end. Nothing I said would matter. It got so bad I thought I was going to have to "go see a man about a dog" and I did not know if it was for real or not.

So, I had to come clean. Now they all know what we mean when we say "we have to see a man about a dog". All of us use it, but not often. In fact sometimes my wife suggests that I "go see a man about a dog." She must really love me!

To day, I needed to get out for a while. I just looked at my son and he said "Dad, I think we need to go see a man about a dog." So off we went. Somehow, he did not get the whole story or something went wrong because he literally saw a man about a dog! Ice cream was not good enough, although we had that. No, he had to see a man about a dog.

They put too much mustard on it but he ate it any way. I guess an old dog can learn new tricks. I think I like this version of "seeing a man about a dog."