from april 12, 2013

Meet Shadow ... a 2yo black boxer, adopted last fall. She likes to chew toys that don't belong to her and sleep on an armchair at night. She loves to run. And run. And run some more. Then, when she's tired of running, she drinks water and runs it off. She eats *more* than our Great Pyrenees, Phelps, and she still cannot gain weight.

Yesterday, Shadow came in without her collar. I wasn't going to look for it because it was starting to pour down rain. I assumed it somehow came off when she was wrestling with Phelps. J found her collar this morning before school - soaking wet and caked in mud - and I put it in some hot water to start cleaning it. So she's naked.

This morning, the wind blew open the front door. It happens occasionally when it's not shut firmly (almost slammed, basically). This time it happened while I was taking a shower. I had just laid JT down for a nap (he had a little fever early this week and now has a "non-specific viral rash" on his trunk and is exceptionally grumpy and waking up 3-4 times a night), when I heard barking. Barking that sounded just like Phelps, only he was in the living room. Right?

Wrong. Phelps was sitting by our next door neighbor's front door, looking at our house and barking. He seems to be very confused and not at all sure about what just happened, but someone, please let him inside RIGHT NOW. He immediately comes to me and I put him in the backyard, where he continues to bark. I assume he's acting as some sort of audio homing device for Shadow. Who, by the way, is nowhere to be found.

Since Shadow has vanished and I don't hear barking or the squawking of the neighbors chickens, I assume she's taken off for a good long run. I stand in the road for several minutes calling her to no avail. Finally, I decide I probably need to get dressed. Because a thigh-high black satin robe is going to attract the wrong attention out in public.

Before I can change into actual clothes, my neighbor rings the doorbell. Holding a squirming, licking, kissing, far-too-excited Shadow.