Crossing the bridge

Yesterday was the Cub Scout pack picnic. It was exciting for two very special reasons: 1. Mark bridged over from being a first-year Webelo to a second-year Webelo, and 2. There was a loose dog in the park. (More on that later.)

Webelos are the transitional phase between being a Cub Scout and becoming a Boy Scout. And being a second-year Webelo just puts Mark that much closer to being a Boy Scout, which I'm not sure I'm ready for yet. He's still just a little Cub to me.

However...Mark is certainly not a shy little five-year-old anymore, growling and giving the audience the stink eye for simply looking at him. No, he's grown into quite the confident young man. And by confident I don't mean in the traditional calm, self-assured way. More like the class clown kinda way. He raised his hands, egging on the audience to cheer for him as he received his earned activity pins.


One happened to be for the Showman activity, and the guy next to me laughed at Mark and said, "He's certainly a showman!"

But Mark and his buddies took their senior rank in the pack seriously, showing those littler Cub Scouts how to really cross a bridge. As each of their names were called, they literally ran, skipped, danced and hopped across the bridge, and into their second-year Webelo status.



And then there was the dog...a well-groomed little Shih Tzu wearing a harness. He obviously belonged to somebody, but that didn't stop the Scouts from crowding around and feeding him hot dogs. One boy noted he probably shouldn't eat them, since hot dogs seemed "a bit cannibalistic."

"They aren't really made out of dogs," I told him, and he laughed.

While the younger Scouts engaged in water balloon tosses, mini golf, tossing footballs and frisbees, Mark's den befriended the dog. They made a makeshift leash from a uniform neckerchief, and later a balloon ribbon, then they scoured the park looking for the dog's owner. It was a friendly little dog, loving all the attention, and once the boys found him, they took turns carrying him everywhere. I don't think his feet touched the ground once. They spent the entire picnic playing with the dog, as they parents kidded each other about who was going to take him home.

(We never did find the owner, but one Scout dad volunteered to go to a few nearby houses.)

All in all, it was a fun, friendly picnic. It was fun to watch all the Cub Scouts cross the bridge over to their next level of Scouting, and to see all the proud parents (and even a little stray dog) cheering them on.

Go Cobra Patrol!