Farmington, NM—Collapsed onto the floor under the weight of his own shame, local dog Flip is trying to come to terms with his error after leaving his owner alone for ten whole minutes.
Between sobs, Flip recounted the terrible event to a Post reporter.
“I was… I was sitting on the couch with my wonderful master, whom I love sooo very much and would never… never abandon…” Flip managed. “Then I happened to glance out the window, and I saw… a squirrel.”
Flip paused a moment to take a tissue offered to him by the reporter. He thanked the reporter before eating the tissue.
“Anyway, I went over to the window, but the squirrel moved, so I ran over to another window to find it. Then I DID find it, and I barked a few times. But I always intended to go back to Master. It wasn’t supposed to go so far…”
Flip spent the next few minutes in tears before continuing.
“So then the squirrel ran around the side of the house, and I ran around to find another window. And I did! But it was climbing a tree. Eventually it climbed out of sight, so I gave up the chase. That’s when things really went haywire.”
Flip took a breath and stared at the floor while recounting the next part of the story.
“I smelled something really terrific, so I investigated what it was, and sure enough, I found it in the trash can. So then I tipped over the trash can and rifled around until I found it. It was a diaper. It smelled even better up close.”
For the first time in the interview, Flip smiled.
“After I’d chewed on that for a while, I looked up and saw that the squirrel was back. So I followed it around some more, and wouldn’t you know it, I found myself standing in my dog bed. Then I remembered how tired I was, and I lay down and shut my eyes for a minute. But it was just supposed to be a minute!”
Flip became inconsolable at this point and was unable to continue the interview.
Authorities later reviewed home security camera footage and determined it was ten minutes and nine seconds from the time Flip left his owner’s side to when he abruptly woke up from his 3-minute nap. Video shows him searching frantically for his owner before finding him on the couch, where the owner had been the entire time.
“Wait, what?” his owner, Garon Ruth asked when questioned about the incident. “I don’t remember Flip being gone. And why do you need to look at my security camera?”
Flip has checked into rehab to ensure he doesn’t repeat the mistake again.
“I know everybody makes mistakes, but I just can’t chance something like this happening again,” Flip says. “Not even once.”
