Do NOT open the Popcorn Tin!

AHS log for June 19----Lexie heard a security breach before midnite, just as mom was turnin' off all the lites. Mom even heard it. She wasn't sure what it was, but she was thinkin' that maybe she forgot somethin' outside from our barbecue we had earlier in the day.

So, she turned on the outside lites, an' let us out. We charged out quietly (when we're sure there's somethin' out there, we're not gonna warn 'em....this was gonna be a "black op"...."take no prisoners".

Lexie an' I located the perp in the flower bed, as it tried to elude us, we chased it thru the bushes, across the path, to the garden behind the grill...across the patio, as it zigged an' zagged. When it got on the patio, we had it...almost...just imagine the scurrin' of 8 big paws an' 4 lil' ones all jumpin', hoppin', twistin' & "dancin'" as it weaved in an' out under us & us tryin' to grab it & all three of us in a tangle.

Now, this is where it went sideways. Well, at least as far as mom was concerned. As far as Lexie an' I were concerned, it was a very successful operation.

Then mom....<just shakin' my head...she never learns> stepped out (still not sure why).....that lil' distraction gave that big rat an' openin' an it ran for mom. She made this lil' noise an' jumped outa the way. She wasn't sure what that rat was goin' to do, but thoughts of it runnin' across her bare feet an' maybe up her legs ran thru her head ...an' well, that "fight or flight" mode kicked in...an' it's really amazin' how fast she can move sometimes.

This was all in split seconds...when mom "moved", she left the back door open. That rat thought that was an escape route...Mom's yellin' "NOT IN THE HOUSE!!"....an' pointin'..(from the safety of the patio)...tellin' us to "GET IT!!" (that was a lil' redundant, duh!).

Lexie an' I got it before it could get past dad's chair, right by the threshold. Then left it layin' there for mom. (Hey, we even know that it's not s'posed to be in our house).

Mom looked at it...carefully...then at us layin' there watchin' it & her, waitin' to see what she was gonna do. We'd done our part.

Mom sure didn't want to touch it...not w/anythin'...not w/a bag, towel, oven mitt...thought about dad's barbecue tongs..but that grossed her out....didn't want it period. An' she wasn't goin' back outside for a shovel (her mode of disposal). Finally, she went into the garage an' got a big empty popcorn tin she had gotten for Christmas. Usin' the lid (while we watched..just in case it was playin' possum), she scooped it into the tin an' slammed the lid on it. Then left it in the middle of the laundry room w/the door shut, w/a sticky note for dad sayin', "DO NOT OPEN!" & plans for him to get rid of it.

Lexie an' I made sure there were no more breaches into the house...just to double check. Then we really wanted to go back outside...but mom for some reason said that was a definite negative.

As a side note for mom....just maybe stayin' inside an' not "helpin'" us an' keeping that door shut might be a better idea..just sayin'.

Goin' to Bed

Personally, I think it's good for her. Makes her use muscles she don't normally use...an' after all, agility is important.

Last nite an' the nite before weren't really that unusual. Same ol' same ol'.....mom let's us out for "last call", tellin' us to "come right back". We did.

Then she turns out the lites an' tells us , "it's time to go to bed". We do. We both followed her to her room. Lexie immediately lays down on my bed beside mom's bed. I follow mom to her bathroom for my nitely drink of water outa her sink, while she gets ready for bed. Then we have our nitely ritual race. She tries to change clothes before I finish w/my drink. You can actually see mom "scurry" in an' outa her clothes. For some reason, she objects to me dryin' my beard on her bareness an' the dancin' she does to try to avoid it. I think it's funny. (She never wins btw).

Anyway, after all that, she turns out the bathroom lite, an' she an' I go to bed....or start to. There's Lexie sprawled across my bed, literally. There's no room for me, an' there's no way mom can step over her. It's no biggee to me...I just lay down in front of it in the doorway. I can keep an' eye on the front door an' the front of the house better from there anyway.

Mom's stuck. Her choices are to try to step over Lexie an' run the risk of squishin' her, or trippin'. Climbin' over dad(who's sound asleep, 'cause he has to get up for work super early) or the end of the bed. She chooses climbin' into bed from the "foot of the bed" an' crawlin' up.

Now, her bed is super high, 'cause it's one of those that has that thingee that can raise it up. It's not one you wanna fall off of...trust me. Then there's the problem of the foot board that's even a lil' higher. After two nites, I think she's gettin' better at it. In fact, all she's said is that she's glad it done all in the dark. Her crawlin' across the bed, then havin' to scrunch up on her pillow so she can get the covers out from under her to get under them. Then move down, so she can stretch out....all w/out wakin' dad.

To be fair, we got our spots first. Her other option would be to move faster an' get in bed first. Heck, I think she's doin' a great job. But, She's even started to control the gigglin'...but that last "the things I do for you two", I thnk is unnecessary

Wet an' Wild.....

Wow, did we have rain yesterday. It was like a tropical storm, it rained so hard...in fact it flooded our street (never up near the house). But the backyard was like a swamp! Mom went out to close the greenhouse durin' a lull an' stepped off into the grass an' got water up to her ankles, an' the inside of the greenhouse had about 6 inches of standin' water in it. She wasn't concerned about that, figurin' the big pots would soak some of it up and the rest would soak into the ground.

It actually stopped rainin' late last nite. Mom put off lettin' us out for "last call" as long as she could, hopin, some of the standin' water would be gone. So, with her "come right back!" she let us out about 11:30pm.

Now, we had good intentions of comin' right back. We really did...an' were on our way back to the house, when somethin' ran off into the bushes by the pond.

Decisions, decisions....not really, we kinda live for this sort of situation....think about it...it's in our dna....somethin's in our yard, an' it runs from us....it's like havin' a switch clicked...of course we have to give chase!

We chased it clear to the other side of the pond into that garden area. Me on one side an' Lexie...on the other side. Oh, we heard mom an' dad callin' us...but we were in chase an' catch mode, naturally turnin' that toggle switch off in our ears.

Finally dad came out w/mom's lite an' our leads an' his big rubber boots. Mom had her jammies on an' that part of the yard she knew still had standin' water an' she didn't want to wade in it....as you can imagine..that wasn't a concern to us.

We saw dad...an' heard mom telllin' us to get in the house...that it was "gone". How she knew...I don't know...but w/dad trompin' over there in his boots an' w/her lite...yep, it was. Dang it.

We raced into the house, all excited like, to tell mom how much fun we had.

Mom didn't share our excitement. In fact, it didn't take her a second to grab Lexie's collar. Then lead her into the bathroom. To be honest, it wasn't Lexie's fault that the only thing tan on her was her head an' tail. There was a lot of standin' water out there, an' in the gardens it was like standin' mud. Dad thought she just needed to get her legs rinsed off...but that didn't do it. There was mom at midnite in the shower w/Lexie an' soapin' up Lexie's legs. Neither one of 'em looked happy. Then it was my turn, while dad started tryin' to dry Lexie off. Mom just shook her head at me in wonder...you really couldn't even tell I had been out there, but I went to get my feet rinsed off, anyway. I could feel a lil' mud between my toes. I can't help it if I'm like teflon...it just don't stick to me.

We both got toweled off an' even blow dried. We were feelin' really good by then. Mom an' dad not so much. They cleaned everythin' all up. Mom had to change her jammies. She had stayed inside, 'cause she didn't want to get wet an' muddy...but that didn't work out, lol.

Dad locked the doors an' turned off the back lites. Lexie followed him around an' was demandin' to go outside. Dad told her, NO!". (I knew better, mom had already declared, "outside was closed till further notice". Lexie wasn't happy w/dad...so, she went back into the bathroom where mom was changin' clothes, an' gave her a big complain'in bark. Then ran back to the back door. Mom came out an' asked dad what that was about...he told her that he had told Lexie she couldn't go back outside. She was just tryin' to see if it'd work w/mom.....it didn't. Mom went an' told her, "NO"...an' to go to bed...that's she'll be lucky to get to go out tomorrow.

Today's another day....the sun's shinin'...almost all the water has drained off or soaked into the ground. Lexie an' I have been out several times an' .....stayed clean, which mom appreciates. But we're s'posed to have more big rains tomorrow...so, who knows....

Thru the Doggy Door

Well....it finally happened!   Yep, the biggest fear of doggy doors everywhere.....all windows and doors locked, but an intruder comes inside thru the doggy door!

Lexie an' I had been instructed to guard the house while the folks an' our french aussie friends went off to have some kind of fun w/out us.  We're kinda used to that an' try our best to make 'em feel guilty enough to bring us back somethin'.  Meanwhile we enjoy the freedom of doin' whatever we want while they're gone.  Imagine our surprise when we hear somethin' messin' w/our doggy door.   Naturally, we both first look out the big door an' then go out there to confront the intruder.

He backed out an' we gave him a thorough goin' over, then we came back inside.   He was still out there, so we went out again to recheck him.  This time, he kinda pushed ahead of us an' crawled right thru our door into the house w/us right behind him.

We thought this was great fun, not sure why dad was doin' all this.  We've never seen him do it before, but it seemed to be great fun.  Seemed he locked himself outa the house an' didn't have the keys to the car either.   Mom thought he was just going around to the backdoor to get inside, 'cause she never locks the backdoor...but seems dad decided to lock up the house like a vault.  
Mom said she still wishes there had been a camera of dad an' us, it woulda' been a real classic!


Everyone was waitin' in the front yard when he finally came out w/the car keys, an' they all  laughed an' agreed that since he was security checked before bein' let into the house, we were still doin' a great job. (Well, duh..it is AHS Headquarters).  An' that they were sure that if it had been someone up to no good.....well, let's just say he wouldn't have made it very far thru our door.
  

Dad Trainin'

Well, I'm filin' this lil' tidbit in my memory bank for future use.

I was up in my tower an' ...OMD...what did i see? I let out a hollar an' Lexie heard what I was sayin' an' she pretty much answered in kind. Then I ran downstairs an' told dad. He looked at me an' said, "what?". Mom told him that he had to stand up an tell me, "show me". (this is all kinda new, since he's usually at work when stuff happens). He gave mom a "look", but did what she suggested.

As soon as he said it...I took off back upstairs. Dad told mom that it looked like he was bein' led to "the tower". Then off he went followin' me.

I showed him, alright......there was Ginger w/her brite green LED collar (actually all you could see was that green glowin' collar, lol) goin' on a walk w/her daddy...after dark, too! I just felt that was wrong...on so many levels. All kinds of stuff could happen.

Back down the stairs we went. Lexie had followed us up there, so she knew what was goin' on, too. We were both beside ourselves an' expected results from mom an' dad....an' immediately.

Mom an' dad were kinda tired...they'd been busy all day movin' furniture, shoppin' (mom), breakin' lamps (dad), rollin' up a thousand pound rug (that's what dad said)...just all kinds of stuff. But dad came down an' told mom the situation. Lexie an' I got on either side of her waitin' in anticipation an' excitement....for those words....

.

"looks like we're all goin' for a nite walk".

YES!! (I tell you....I have to brag a lil'...we've got 'em pretty well trained)

We left the house an' then dragged mom an' dad about half a block...before mom dug her heels in (literally) an' told us to slow down...that we weren't gonna be able to catch up to Ginger...that she was fine w/her glowin' collar an' daddy, an' to enjoy the cool nite air.

The rest of the walk was great....I managed to leave a p-note about every other bush...Lexie picked a few yards as well. There was one rude dog across one street that was doin' some trash talkin'...an' you wouldn't believe it, but Lexie ignored him. Me on the other paw...I had to tell him to "shut it".

Thinkin' back on this.....I may have to change my tactics on warnin' off dog walkers...this worked so well....I guess I just have to tell dad an' then get out an' track 'em in person.

10 foot Pole

AHS Report--

<ahem>..
.I'm gonna have to compose myself from laughin' so hard.   When mom announced, "that "possum is gone"...an' then, "good job, let's go to the house for cookies!"....Lexie an' I were already half way there.  No sense in stayin' out there, 'cause that 'possum was gone for sure...now.....w/mom's help....again.

It all started when Lexie an' I had that possum cornered in the lil' loquat tree way out back.  Of course, we may have been a lil' noisy, and that's what woke dad up.  He came outa the bedroom an' told mom what we were up to.  Well, he told her what we were soundin' like.  Since he's not as willin' to go traipsin' about in the dark in his jammies....mom grabbed her big lite an' headed out to see what was goin' on.  

She found us at that tree.  One of us on each side.  We waited while she got under it an' shined her lite.  Naturally, she wasn't in the right spot an' didn't see anythin'.   So, we had to coach her to look in the right spot.  She got under that tree an' still didn't see anythin'. She shined that lite this way an' that way, lookin' this way an' that.  Finally, she just grabbed that tree an' shook it a couple of times really hard.  Usin' the theory that if you shake a tree hard enough, somethin's bound to fall out.   It worked.
I had to alert her to come around to my side.  There that possum was...hangin' onto the end of a limb that was hangin' over our fence an' the field.  Mom figured that's where he needed to go....in that field.  She grabbed her trusty 10 foot pole (she says that's a necessary piece of AHS equipment an' won't let dad throw it away).  Then she proceeded to push/knock/prod that possum off the end of that limb.  She thought she had succeeded.  That branch bent way down then popped up sans possum.
This is where Lexie an' I were torn between yellin' at that possum, yellin' at mom...yellin' in surprise an' alarm...heck...it was an excitin' moment...I tell you.   At one point...mom was yellin'.

All of a sudden...her pole was way too heavy to hang onto while holdin' it an' her big lite.  She had to drop that lite to keep from losin' her pole.  "Cause just before droppin' her lite, she could see that big possum pullin' himself up on her pole an' startin' to move pretty fast toward her end of the pole.  <at this point..we were all yellin'>

Mom started backin' up...still holdin' her pole..tryin' to scrape him off her pole on the top of the fence.  He wasn't lettin' go...she tried whackin' the pole on the fence to knock him off...but he weighed too much an' he was still kinda on the other end.

I had to step in to save mom....I started jumpin' up on the fence under that possum...Lexie was yellin' encouragement an' ready to intervene if any one of us managed to knock him to the ground.  At this point...I think a lite bulb of sense came to that possum...an' he decided that fence may just be his salvation.   The next time mom was able to get him close to it, he grabbed the top of the fence an' took off down it towards Ginger's house (she was inside an' clueless to what was happenin').  All three of us were after him.....me an' Lexie jumpin' an hollarin' ...mom w/her stick (still no lite)...but he got away.  Last I could tell...he was about midway on the fence in Ginger's yard.  

This is when mom told us it was gone (duh)...an' we went to the house for a reward of a job well done.  We were successful in eliminating a poacher...an' we saved mom.  Hopefully, he's learned his lesson.  Probably not...but that's ok...we'll be here...an' ready.  Not sure about mom's "help", though....for some reason...they seem to escape more often when she "helps".  But Lexie an' I wouldn't have it any other way....it's always lots more excitin' when she does.

Winner winner Chicken Dinner.....NOT

Don't know what she was thinkin'. At least when I make a move on somethin'.....I eat it right then an' there. Not Lexie...oh, nooo. It's like she's askin' to get caught.

Mom fixed a roasted chicken for supper. It did smell delicious. Bein' older an' wiser...I know sometimes it pays to be patient. I, also, know that when mom tells us, "when we're finished you can have some.", well...you can take to the bank. She hasn't let us down, yet. After all, how could she put their plates in the dishwasher w/out our prewash cycle? So, I know to just settle down an' wait for mom an' dad to finish their dinner. Easy peasy.

Lexie decided to go rogue, instead. She came strollin' thru the livin' room, past dad...then in front of mom....almost thru her lil' door when mom jumped up, opened the big door an' (usin' "that" voice) tells Lexie to, "stop right there!!".

Lexie made it past her porch an' was chowin' down as fast as she could when mom grabbed half that chicken hangin' outa Lexie's mouth. Then stuck her whole hand inside Lexie's mouth an' dragged some more out. Lexie still was tryin' to hide some way back in the back, but mom's kinda ruthless an' knows that trick. (sidenote...can't tell you how many times it's felt like mom's had her whole arm down my mouth. She says we're like gators...all mouth.). Anyway, mom got it all.

Now all this only took like a minute...mom can move fast when she wants to. As she came back inside, holdin' two handfuls of grassy, dirty, partially chewed, mutilated roasted chicken, dad asked what was goin' on. Mom showed him the remains of half a roasted chicken that had been left on a plate. Dad was shocked...he said he made sure he pushed that plate all the way back on the counter. Mom looked at him an' reminded him of Lexie's penchant for never ever lettin' somethin' stop her in her quest for somethin'. Not to mention, she probably stood on her tippytoes, turned sideways, an' snagged the edge of the plate to get it close enough to get that chicken. The fact she grabbed the biggest piece, is just a testament to her abilities.

Lexie an' I both followed mom back to the kitchen hopin' she'd go ahead an' give us that chicken. It was obvious to us that mom an' dad weren't gonna eat it. But, no...mom threw it away. Dad noticed that there was almost a whole breast sittin' off the plate on the counter. Mom told him we could have it...but not now. We had to "wait". (This is where guilt by association comes in...I didn't do anythin'. In fact I was actin' support for mom....an' I did double check to make sure all the chicken got picked up in the grass. Not sure why I had to wait some more...I'd been waitin'. But, again, ...the good have to suffer 'cause of the bad.)

Mom an' dad finished dinner. Then dessert. Then they were watchin' a show. Lexie climbed up next to mom for some cuddles. She said to say she was sorry. I say she was suckin' up. Anyway, dad went to the kitchen for somethin'....an' mom told us to go in the kitchen to dad.....he was gonna give us some chicken.

SCORE...finally!! She didn't have to tell us twice. We were in there in nothin' flat. Dad turned around to find us sittin' nice an' proper like. He laughed an' gave us some chicken an' some of the brown n' wild rice w/chicken broth. As we cleaned our plates, I have to say all's well that ends well....an' it was worth waitin' for.