The Gate

Our yard has 2 gates. That's 2 holes in the fence that need to be secured before we let the dog out of the house. Not shutting one or both of these gates means our family will be down one puppy.... it happened before: The gate was opened when we weren't home and we came home to find no puppy. We were very lucky that a neighbor down the street found her and we were reunited with our tag-less wonder at the time.

Aero wears her tags now - all the time. She's also been tattooed and micro chipped since the great escape. But somehow that was still little reassurance to me this morning when I got out of bed to let her in...... only to find her not there - and the gate near the back door swinging half open.

Picture me: running up and down the sidewalk, in my pajamas, hollering for the damn dog at 6:30am. It wasn't a pretty sight.

Also not the way I prefer to start my mornings. Especially cool, crisp, fall mornings in my PJ's.

And I had to decide what to do (besides getting some clothes on): Leave my toddler, unsupervised once again, in the living room while I hunt for a lost dog? (given her history, probably not a smart move).... Wake up the boys and get all 3 of them out here with me? (not exactly a circus I want to ring-lead at that time of day).... Or call for reinforcements? (do you think "my dog got out" is a reasonable excuse for my husband to be late for work?)

Carefully weighed those options.... then I called him - he wasn't even TO work yet. And I stood in front of my house calling Aero while I waited for him to get back and help me find her.

Then, from about 6 doors down on the other side of the street, she came racing out and made a bee-line for me.... a neighbor was a few feet behind her - not sure if he was chasing her out of his yard or what.... maybe he had nasty things to yell at me, who knows - But I was so relieved to have her back that I just yelled "THANK YOU!!" at him...

And he was nice enough to holler back "you're welcome" rather than all the nasty things he probably wanted to yell at the idiot owners of the BIG rambunctious dog that had infiltrated his yard.

Damn Dog.

Stupid Gate.