The Day I Forgot My Puppy

It was a busy day and I had it planned right down to the minute.
3:00 Pick up Tween and Youngest from school. Drop them at home.
3:30 Take Bookworm shopping for a dress for her friend's sweet sixteen party this weekend.
5:00 Pick up puppy at doggie day care.
5:30 Drop puppy and Boookworm at home. Pick up Tween and Youngest.
6:00 Drop Tween at soccer game - Ex-Marine will pick up after work.
6:30 Drop Youngest at soccer practice - Asst. Coach will take home.
7:00 Attend my Cub Scout Leader meeting. Go home to find Ex-Marine, Bookworm, Tween, Youngest, and Puppy all happily settled in for the night.
That was the plan.
Anyone familiar with teenage girls immediately saw the flaw in this plan and stopped reading right there at 3:30. Only 90 minutes to shop for a party dress? What was I thinking? Well, I was thinking that this is small town America. There are few choices here. There is one upscale consignment store "downtown" and three chain stores on "the other side of town". So I really wasn't too far off but when your plan is down to the minute and you are just a few minutes behind....that's enough to make it all go wrong. So Bookworm and I went to the upscale consignment store first - lots of cute dresses but no LITTLE cute dresses. Being a size zero is such a burden - I wouldn't know never having been a size zero in my life...straight from 6X to 9/10 - but Bookworm is petite. Then we went to "the other side of town" and hit TJMaxx and Belk - strike two and strike three. We were ready to throw in the towel but there was still JCPenney. And she said, "I don't think I'll find a dress in JCPenney." and I mentally agreed but said, "We're here, let's go in and just look. That way when we go across the state line this weekend to go shop at the mall, we can go guilt free knowing that we tried to spend our local dollars in our local stores supporting our small town businesses." And in my head, I said a prayer. I ask a lot of God and most of the time the answer is - no answer - the prayers float off into space to be considered but never seemingly acted upon. But this time, He answered and there was the perfect dress. Right there in JCPenney - who'd have thought?! So we paid for our purchases and off we went. But we were running late and I was thinking and thinking about getting the boys where they needed to be. So I drove from "the other side of town" right through "downtown" and over the bridge onto the island where we live. And as I flew down the island's main road I realized....I FORGOT THE PUPPY. My darling baby was waiting for me downtown at doggie day care - which would close in twenty minutes and I was across the bridge on the island. What a terrible feeling. And then I immediately had to prioritize my family members. Would the real children be late for all their human endeavors so I could pick up the new (but not human) baby? Oooh - bad mother however you look at that. So I continued home, dropped off Bookworm and took the boys with me to doggie day care. The Puppy was delighted to see us and to get to continue on to the soccer fields. Tween missed pregame practice/warm-up but was on time for kick off. Youngest got to practice just a tad late - late enough to miss running laps so he was not at all unhappy! And puppy was content to sit with me in the car and watch the boys play. Asst. Coach didn't have to give a ride home. All was well... until I find out I missed something important at the leader meeting. Or, even more likely, in my absence they appointed me to head some major project!