This Thursday evening from 5-7 p.m., the Chamber of Commerce monthly Business After Hours event takes place at Redbones in Davis Square, 55 Chester Street. It’s a great networking event featuring free appetizers and a free business card drawing with cash bar. Sponsored by Rockland Trust and hosted by Somerville Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours Co-Chair Dana Iacopucci, of Cubby Oil & Energy.

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I’m writing this to tell Jax’s story so that others don’t have to learn this lesson the same way I did … the worst way imaginable.

Jax was a happy and rambunctious puppy like most but like most owners would say, he was far from common. Just ask all the people he would meet on his 2 daily walks where he marched proudly down Broadway and Medford St wagging his tail wildly the entire time and he would pull with all his might to meet everybody like he was running for Mayor. He would go from bouncing off the walls and tearing up shoes to crawling up on your lap for a nice cuddle and nap. Like all crazy pups he would get into things he shouldn’t … like the dead rat in the bushes that resembled his toy squirrel. When he emerged from the bushes with his new plaything I did what anybody would do, I yelled for him to drop it, which he did after his getaway attempt was quickly thwarted. I was grossed out and carried him inside to brush his teeth because he certainly wasn’t kissing me with that tongue anytime soon. It’s too bad toothpaste was least of my worries.