Bernard

For Bernard, the grocery store had a special place in the little canine’s heart. This had not always been the case however, and at first, no one in the grocery store would even let him in. They would instead constantly shoo him away despite Bernard’s best protests. However, after the 4th or 5th attempt at gaining access to the impenetrable supermarket, and after an especially grumpy greeter went to once again shoo him away, Bernard grabbed his wallet out of his bag, and held it in his mouth, trying to make a point to the caring-way-more-about-his-job-than-he-should-be greeter. The old man than lost his annoyed expression, only for it to be replaced seconds later by a puzzled one. He then reached out for the wallet in the basset hound’s mouth, and with some reluctance, Bernard let him remove it from his maw. The man then flipped upon the cutesy and cat covered wallet to find that yes, this belonged to the dog as evidenced by the id within matching the Basset sitting in front of him exactly, albeit with a much less frustrated expression. The greeter, no less puzzled, but deciding to not push the matter further, returned the wallet to the dog, whose name was apparently Bernard, and went back to his post. Bernard satisfied that he had finally got through at least one of the thickheaded people that worked here, entered the building to finally begin his grocery shopping.

He made sure to make himself as inconspicuous as possible as he searched through the aisles, placing all kinds of different food items into the basket he had grabbed at the front of the store. When it was full, he began nudging the basket full of food toward the cashier stations before quickly realizing how badly that would probably work out, and without the presence of a self-checkout, his choices were pretty limited. He thought for a minute, before an idea hit him. He sneakily and craftily snuck past the supermarket’s other customers, bringing his basket back to the front of the store. He soon got the attention of the greeter from earlier, and with the best puppy dog eyes the little basset could muster, he once again held his wallet in his mouth while motioning to the checkout with his snout. Sighing, but unable to hold back a smile from how adorable the little guy looked up at him, the greeter gingerly took the wallet out of the little dog’s mouth and grabbed the almost overflowing basket of groceries as well. He walked to one of the open checkouts and paid for the groceries, the cashier getting a bit of a shocked expression to see the particularly saccharine looking wallet the older gentleman was using to pay for the food items.

When he was done paying, he grabbed the bags and carried them back to Bernard, who was patiently waiting outside. The greeter returned the wallet and making sure the little dog could handle carrying all the bags by himself, turned around to go back to work. Before he could though, he heard a little “Bark!” behind him, and slowly turned back around. Bernard, knowing he had the older man’s attention, stuck his snout into one of the bags on his left side and began searching around in it. He soon pulled out a small paper bag, and held it up to the man. The greeter pulled it out of the basset’s mouth, and looked inside finding a delicious looking bear claw inside. He chuckled, as a smile started to form on his face. Closing the bag, he looked down, only to see that the little dog had already left.
From that point on, the two had formed a bit of a friendship, the greeter always helping Bernard get his groceries, and Bernard making sure to always buy a little treat to thank the older man. Needless to say, the grocery store had a special place in the little canine’s heart.