Dog locks attorney out of Jeep
....By Bill Whitaker
Next time Fort Worth attorney and bona fide Aggie Jenny Henry
comes to Buffalo Gap, she likely won't bring the dogs.
After all, some folks think Jenny's dogs are a little smarter
than she is. Not much, mind you, just a little.
For instance, this past Sunday morning, one day before April Fools'
Day, Jenny's chocolate lab "Polly" managed to lock Jenny
out of her Jeep. Before it was all barked and done, Jenny had
to beg a locksmith to open up the car - and then couldn't pay
him.
Old-timers in Buffalo Gap who hear this story will probably just
shake their heads and wonder what kind of gal Asa Charlie Henry
got mixed up with.
The truth: Jenny's pretty sharp, even if she is an Aggie. She's
wife of Charlie Henry, grandson of Buffalo Gap's late, legendary
Mayor Glenn Johnson. Charlie, 33, also an Aggie, runs the Steel
Gallery in Dallas, a successful outlet specializing in custom
furniture for folks like Jerry Jones and Ringo Starr.
The couple, who met at Texas A&M a decade ago, have no children,
but their two utterly rambunctious dogs seem to keep them busy
enough. One, a heavyset chocolate lab, is named for Charlie's
mom, Polly, who still lives in Buffalo Gap and naturally didn't
think much of a dog being named for her. That changed, of course,
when Polly met Polly.
The other dog, a Keeshond, is named Pepper for no one in particular.
Lately, Charlie has been following up on an impulse to have a
presence in the town his grandfather ran for almost 30 years.
Together with Jeff and Andrea Plowman, Charlie has opened Artisanshome
in the Gap, specializing in custom furniture, unique gifts and
some remarkable antiques.
This past weekend, Charlie was working on the new place and rang
up Jenny in the Metroplex to ask that she bring two antique chairs
"and no danged dogs" when she drove in.
"So she showed up at my mom's with no chairs and both dogs,"
Charlie said, "and those dogs were barking all night long
and forever getting out of the fence and, well, I was up three
times."
All this precipitated a spat between husband and wife, so wife
ended up on the couch the rest of the night with her beloved dogs.
Come 6 a.m., Jenny - still rankled at hubby - decided to quietly
slip out with Polly and Pepper and spend the morning at Abilene
State Park. Not bothering to tidy up, Jenny threw some duds over
herself and went off to the Skinny's at Buffalo Gap Road and Farm
Road 707 to get a morning paper with a bit of change.
All the makings of a beautiful, soul-reviving morning, right?
Wrong.
While Jenny was momentarily outside the Jeep, Polly jumped up
on the console where Jenny had left the keys and, to quote Jenny,
"stepped on the electric auto-lock on the key chain, locking
me out and leaving me in front of Skinny's with no money and looking
very unattractive.
"Funny thing is, the guy at Skinny's said it happens all
the time. In fact, he said it had happened to the wife of one
of the Wylie football coaches."
Jenny, still fuming at Charlie, decided she couldn't exactly call
home now. That, after all, constituted losing face. So, for a
bizarre period she actually tried convincing Polly to leap back
up on the console so she might once more step on the auto-lock
device and allow Jenny inside.
Alas, Polly's no circus dog. If she does something remarkable
once, she's not likely to do it ever again.
Upshot: Jenny had to convince a locksmith to come out and break
into the Jeep. Then she had to promise her first-born if she didn't
pay him because, of course, she didn't have any money, let alone
a purse. The locksmith was understandably wary of Jenny's promises
but let her return to Buffalo Gap.
I'm told Jenny quietly slipped into the house, got a credit card
and left with nary a word of explanation to anyone.
Granted, the notion of Polly, the chocolate lab, locking her mistress
out of the family Jeep isn't as good as that recent report about
a canine actually driving off in a car. Still, it's got folks
in the south of Taylor County wagging about something besides
the drought.
Incidentally, right after Jenny paid the locksmith and came back
to her mother-in-law's house, she collapsed into a chair and,
looking very forlorn, droned wearily to her husband: "I'm
sorry I brought the dogs!"
Monday might've allowed Jenny to forget this humiliating episode
but for one thing: It was April Fools' Day and also happened to
mark Jenny's 30th birthday.
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1997, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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