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Oy to the World!

Walkabouts!

I like my mom, but sometimes she does boring stuff... last week all she did was lie in bed and cough, or sleep, or sneeze a bunch. She wouldn't even talk with us, she just made wheezy sounds. She said she was "hoarse," but we're both herding dogs and know moo-pie when we hear it. She's mom, and always has been... no horses here!

I was soooo bored, and I know that Jack was too. Mom kept sleeping a bunch, and got cranky and wheezed at us when we woke her up to play. She let us into the backyard for a bit, but we don't really like the backyard. Fortunately for us, someone was being a helper!

We don't know who our benefactor was, and I guess mom doesn't either because she said if she found out who it was she was going to "stab them in the face with a soldering iron." But mom does so love to kid! Anyway, what's really important is that someone took the gate in the backyard down so that we could have adventures!

Jack is such a sissy that he wouldn't leave the front yard, he just hung out there and talked smack to the German Shepherd across the street. I kept trying to get him to come adventuring, but he seemed to be nervous that mom might not like it. So, I had to go by myself.

Across the grey river that's always full of cars, there's a place with a bunch of kids. I love kids! The family I came from had two of them, but mom doesn't have any (except us!) so I kind of miss kids. Also, Jack is afraid of kids so we don't really hang out with any. Since he didn't want to come anyway, I decided that I should go visit the kids! They were all playing outside right now, so it was meant to be.

I trotted out into the "street" and the car beasts were all far away, so I didn't worry about them. I could see the kids, but they were all behind fences, so I started looking for a way around the fence. I kept to the sidewalk area because I know mom gets mad if I go in the street, and there were a whole bunch of car beasts out there too.

I never did find a way around the fence because I heard mom whistling for me. I ran back around the fence toward the car beasts to find out where she was. She was on my side of the street, running toward me! She must have been in a hurry because she was in her clothes that she wears when she sleeps. I was so excited to see her that I gave her a big hug and knocked her over.

I really wanted to lick her face, but she wouldn't let me and then one of the car beasts pulled over and someone was yelling. Mom stood up (with difficulty... I REALLY wanted to lick her face!) and said she was fine, and there was no dog attack happening. I looked around for a mean dog attacking someone, but I couldn't find one so mom must have been right. She then led me by my collar over to the "Crosswalk" and we went back into the house.

We didn't get in trouble, but mom said a lot of bad words and cried. Jack said "I told you so!" and sulked. He said that mom had heard him and found him first, so she knew to look for me.

The gate is back (darn!) and now there's a strange thing called a "padlock" on it. Also mom put up signs saying that we were guard dogs! She's funny.

(Mom here. I had a nice case of suspected swine flu going on and I couldn't work for a week. I was also suposed to be quarentined, and the dogs weren't happy about basically being grounded in my room or crated for more than two days. One day I put them out for some backyard time, and went to take an hour nap ( I don't like leaving them in the backyard for longer, since they excell at finding mischief). I woke up because I heard Jack apprently in the FRONT yard. I listened for a few, and then decided that Jack really was in the front and booked it out in my pj's. Thank dog I did, because I was just in time to see Oy's butt dissapear around the school fence a block down from me. I live across from a high school on a busy one way street and he was ACROSS the street. Since I didn't hear honking or brakes or tires squealing I'm assuming he crossed during a break in traffic. However, since it was right after school got out for the day, there was a whole bunch of it now. I grabbed for Jack, who thought I was mad at him and fled to the backyard (see, I was here the whole time!) where I discovered that somehow BOTH pins were removed from the hinges and the gate laid down INSIDE the fence. I don't see anyway the dogs, the wind, or sheer accident could have accomplished this and my roomies were gone. I'm forced to conclude someone let the dogs out on purpose, although for what reason remains unclear. In any case, I threw Jack inside quickly and ran across the street after Oy. I couldn't really call him because my voice was gone, so as soon as I got close to where I'd last seen him I whistled and he came running up. He was soooo excited to see me that he actually knocked me over and was trying to lick me to death. I maintained a death grip on his collar (I didn't think to grab a leash... that would have taken too much time) and one of the passing cars thought he was attacking me and pulled over! I told them I was fine that he was just excited, and led him back to the house. I crated both dogs, went back to bed said a bunch of bad words and cried when I thought how close I'd come to losing one or both of them... and by losing I mean either lost, or dead. I live right on a VERY busy road and this was a high traffic time. I've gotten a padlock for the gate and got new hinges that have no pins. I also put up signs saying my dogs are mean, but I'm still afraid to let them out in the backyard without supervision.)