Pathological Liar

20 March 2007 – I’m not sure what to do with Jack. He’s got some serious problems. Today I attended a seminar in Sacramento for my job. Since it was during the day I got home before 7PM. Both Kent and Bryce had activities in the evening so neither one of them was home. Jack was in the back yard so I let him in. He was, of course, ecstatic to see me and was jumping around and wagging his tail off, etc. He went straight for the kitchen and his food bowl, but his food bowl was nowhere in sight. I remembered that the previous evening he had carried the bowl out to the back yard so I went out and got it. I brought it in, filled it, and he gobbled the food down like his usual starving self. When Kent arrived home a few hours later he asked if I had fed the dog. I said yes and he replied, “So that’s what his problem is.” I asked what he meant and he said that he had already fed the dog before he had left the house earlier in the evening. I had figured that since the bowl was still out in the yard that Jack had never been fed. I now realized the full extent of Jack’s problems. While I had been defending him all along and believing in him, Kent had known the truth: Jack is a pathological liar. After eating his first dinner he had carried his bowl outside, cleverly knowing that I would think he had never been fed and be duped into feeding him again. But now I am wise to his tricks. I don’t know if I will ever be able to trust him again.

21 March 2007 – Jack tried his bowl hiding trick again tonight, but I did not fall for it. As I entered the house at midnight following a hard day at work, Jack came out to greet me as he always does. But Kent was still up and announced that Jack had hidden his bowl again and Kent could not find it. I checked Jack’s usual hiding places: the backyard, the master bathroom, on top of the waterbed, but I could not find it either. Bryce arrived home soon after me and we let him know we were looking for Jack’s bowl. Bryce found it in his room on top of a bunch of other stuff on the floor in front of the closet. After we discovered it, Jack picked it up and moved it again. But we were hot on his trail as he brought it into the living room and dropped it on the floor, then turned and tried to convince me he had not been fed. Yep, he’s a pathological liar.