The Lady with the Pet Carrier

Hi everyone,
After a brutally hot day, we headed to the park at about 8 p.m. so that I could exercise my talents. We met some playground acquaintances, who were playing t-ball on the field. The older boy in the extended family (he looked to be about seven or eight) came over to us right at the moment that a lady was approaching from our left side, pushing a pink stroller. In the stroller, I noticed with amazement, was a Benji-sized cream colored dog. The older boy said out loud as she passed, "A dog in a stroller!" The lady said firmly, "It's a pet carrier!" Dada responded nicely to her, "She looks like she's having fun. "She" or "he"?" The lady retorted to the boy, "Check before you make fun!" as she passed beyond us all. A second later, Mama said to the boy, who had not seemed to be making fun of the dog, "It is never wrong to tell the truth." Mama told the boy's father what had happened. The father and uncle said, "He's five years old!" It's a hard-won lesson for the childless, which Mama says she learned only a few years ago (to her chagrin): "Check before you reprove."