Can you say AAAAAAA

Rain, rain, rain.

Where I used to live they got one foot of snow last night.

Never thought I would miss that.

But I sort of do.

Now that the man is back on graveyard shift...

I'm back to making diner at 7:00 AM

and pretending to talk to Roxy when I am speaking to myself...

most of the day long.

We have one outing every morning

to our local mini mart that has a drive up window.

They have cheap coffee that is actually good

and if you have a hanker for it...

biscuits and gravy also cheap.

$2.58 will get you a big serving of both.

However,

I avoid the biscuits and gravy.

At any rate...

Roxy has learned that the kid who serves at the 

drive up window keeps dog treats for her there.

As I pull up,

she gets behind my headrest and shoves her big head

as far as she can through the small space...

making loud snuffling noises.

Twice she has startled the girls who fill in 

for the kid on his days off.

But they recover and Roxy gets her happy treat.

So the man sends me to the bank to make a deposit.

Off Roxy and I go.

On the way there I decide not to go inside the bank.

I've got my flip flops on and I don't like the idea of soggy socks.

Its been raining for days.

By now  you've guessed it.

I have to roll my window down entirely just to put the deposit

into the drawer that pops out.

That narrow gap between my headrest and 

potential doggie treat opens wide...

It should have been very funny.

The way she tossed the money and slip into the air

as she screamed and windmilled her arms

to keep from falling over.

Really.

But I felt terrible.

Roxy is not a mean dog.

She's just a goof of a dog who thinks drive up windows have Milk Bones.

The bank lady doesn't know that the bark she heard

was Roxy's higher pitched happy chirp.

She heard the war whoop of a crazed pit bull.

After a moment or two...

when one of the other bank ladies ran over to see what the trouble was...

and that lady laughed.

Roxy had her ears perked up and her tail wiggling for all she was worth...

tongue lolling out of the side of her chompers.

She would have gladly jumped through the thick glass 

and played pick-up with them.

The frightened teller collected herself

and apologized for over reacting.

I apologized for Roxy's behavior.

Then the teller apologized to Roxy for only having suckers,

no Milk Bone biscuits.

I drove away on happy terms with the bank staff.

All the same...

I'm thinking that Roxy isn't going 

to the  drive up window  at the bank again soon.

But...

I did stop on the way home long enough to run into the market...

for some Milk Bone biscuits.

By the way... has anyone seen a show called

Torchwood?

or

Whitechaple?

Timmy's in the well!

The man came home, ate and went to bed.

I spend my days now with Roxy for the most part.

When its raining,

she tends to ignore me and goes to nap in her bed.

Rain is back for my neck of the woods to stay until next spring.

I spend most of my time in the shop.

Out there I can carve and not worry about getting chips on the floor.

I've got a TV and sound system.

Its cozy.

Meanwhile I don't have to worry about being quiet so that the man can sleep.

A few days ago Roxy went outside,

then quickly ran back into the shop to dance around.

I thought she wanted to play.

I was preparing to set down my carving when she began to bark.

She rarely barks unless a person is in the yard.

She insisted that I follow her.

"What Lassie?  Timmy's fallen into the well?"

I followed my crazy dog outside.

No stranger in the yard.

Good.

The problem seemed to be under my house.

She was running frantically from vent to vent to

bark, look at me, bark some more and then snuffle the air through the vent.

Now as I type, 

she is currently snuffling along the place where our deck meets

the house.

She sounds like a freight train.

She keeps looking at me like I should do something.

The day after the Rotor Rooter Man was here,

Todd came over to show us the hunting map for our new spot.

Roxy followed the guys to Todd's truck for something.

And vanished.

She has never tried to go anywhere...

except for the day when I was hacking my way through the Amazon on the side of the house to get to the access door.

She was closed off from me by a gate to the side yard.

Roxy is quite a jumper.

We knew this, so when she jumped the barrier to the shop,

which is fairly low and showed up in the berries from the other side,

I knew what had happened.

That was the day she became fascinated with the vents.

When she vanished,

I decided to check the berries on that side and found that 

someone had left the access door open.

I was sure she was under the house chasing whatever she thinks is in there.

The man and Todd both tried to find her with a flash light.

No dog.  No other critter.

After that began a search of the neighborhood by cars.

No dog.

I was very worried and upset.

She was gone for hours.

As it turns out, the neighbor kids decided to invite her into their house.

Roxy was kicked out when their mom came home.

She wiggled back into the shop...

and warm, dry and happy despite the rain.

I was very unhappy.

We know that Roxy loves people when she is with us.

What if one of the kids had played too hard?

She is not allowed around children unsupervised.

She can be dangerous with those jaws.

Its our responsibility to keep her from getting into a situation that will cause her or anyone else harm.

Fail!

Right now Missy Moo, as we call her,

is on notice.

Obviously we cannot trust her not to run off,

even though no harm was done and she came right home as soon as she was able.

The man had a serious conversation with the neighbor and their kids.

Not mad at them, but cautioning them not to assume that all dogs are going to stay friendly.

The mom gladly backed him up on that.

I don't know what's up with my wacky dog these days...

her foe under the house and leaving the yard like that.

Who knows what she smells under the house...

but every day now is a "Timmy's in the well!" day.

Once she gets me to go out and look, she is fine.

I just hope its not a repeat of the raccoon issue...

but that's another story.

=:]