Lessons from McGruff

McGruff came to the kid's school today and here was the report that I got from them:

C: A big dog came to my school today mom.

M: Oh yeah?

C: Well, actually he wasn't really a dog. It was a man dressed up in a dog costume.

M: What was his name?

C: I think...Gruff Gruff.

M: You mean McGruff?

C: Yeah, McGruff.

M: And what did he talk about?

C: He talked about not to go anywhere with strangers and not to go in a car with strangers. And strangers are people you don't know. And we watched a video.

M: What was the video about?

C: Well, it was about these people who were in a field when an alien ship came down and the aliens kidnapped them and took them to another planet and didn't know how to take care of them. And...I don't remember the rest.

(I kid you not, that is what he told me! I have no idea what McGruff is teaching these days, but obviously not the same thing he was teaching back in my day! )

M: Hmmmm. That's...interesting. Lukie, did you see McGruff?

L: Yeah.

M: And was he nice?

L: Yeah.

M: And what did he teach you?

L: He big like Chuck E Cheese.

Not much sunk in there I guess.

The other humorous part was that when I looked at the papers that were sent home with the kids, they each had class pictures taken with McGruff. As I looked at Luke's picture I see all the smiling faces, the back of Luke Lam's head, and no Luke Mad. I head back to Luke's class and ask his teacher, Miss Maree, where Luke was and she said, "that child wouldn't go anywhere near that dog!"

Then I am in the car, looking through Caleb's papers and I see his class picture with all the smiling faces minus Caleb's! He said, "I was a little bit afraid of McGruff, but next time I'll take my picture with him."

If he's telling alien stories, I'm not sure there will be a next time!