WHO LET THE PUPPY OUT!!!

Now there are some things you should never do to your people: poop on them, pee on them, chew up their stuff, bite them (that was an accident), and run away. I have done all these things, actually, and my family (thankfully) still loves me, despite of myself. 

As dogs, we know the very worst thing you can do to your people is wander off. As whippet mixes, my brother and I have a tendency to do this at what some could consider terminal velocity. I however A) know where I live and  B) usually have a family member in sight even if it is from several hundred yards away. My brother, now that is another story. He does not know where he lives and, since he is a puppy, he does things with wild abandon, like running away from home. 

It all started last Friday night when my family was getting ready to go to a movie. Mom said, "let the dogs out, kennel up the puppy and lets go". What happened was let the dogs out,  (cue skateboarder) freak out the puppy and spend the next 10 hours searching for him. You see, my brothers and sister really didn't see where he went. Mom was inside getting stuff together and I, well, I was watching in horror as my canine brother vanished without a trace. My mom got in the car in hot pursuit of air and my brothers were in hot pursuit of dust. Everyone was going in different directions and no sign of ROAM I mean Rome. Remember when I said I would teach him to play in traffic? I didn't really mean like this. I was at the house in case he came back. 

Mom tried to call Dad. No luck! I tried to help, by racing around franticly-not helpful. Mom was in tears, the boys were yelling at each other about who's fault it was and my sister sat down and said "Rome is bad dog right, Mom". Mom left and then came back because the car was out of gas. On foot, she went sending all of the kids back to the house to wait for my dad. Mom came down the hill when Dad arrived and told him what happened. Dad grabbed me and out we went to search the whole neighborhood.  Now I like long walks as much as the next dog but this was insane. Rome had been gone 2.5 hours. We went back to the house, heads hung low. It was dark and a full moon. What could we do? We set out again and our neighbors got involved. I saw my friend Angel and her mom joined the search. My friend Rocco and his parent came out to help. I ran into my friend Ginny and then my friend Olive but no one had seen him. We drove up to the Hospital searching the highway in fear he may be there. We listened to the messages, no Rome. By 10:00 PM, I was over the walk thing and Mom was so sad. She sent out a ROME alert on Facebook and people were reposting it like wildfire-everyone keeping an eye out for my little brother. 

We went out one last time and ran into Olive again. Her dad said he thought he heard him in the field by the house. We went hiking in the dark by the light of the moon. I know he is there, I thought, but Mom called for him and still no Rome. My family was resigned to wait until morning. We went to bed at midnight. At 4:00 in the morning, I woke up and listened- I thought I heard his tags....No guess not. At 4:30, I definitely heard them. MOM, MOM wake up, listen! I jingled my own collar so she would wake up. I race to the top of the stairs.... wait, where is my mom? Come on woman! I jingled some more and went into my sister's room- Mom will come now for sure. She's up, "Is the baby ok, PIke?" "Yes," I thought, "but we need to go right now!" I raced down the stairs and Mom followed. I turned around like I do when I really need to pee. Mom said, "ok, Pike geez". "COME ON LADY! OPEN THE DOOR!" She opened the door and I bolted. I ran around the side of the house and, Mom in pajamas, started after me. Poor Mom, now she had 2 dogs on the lamb. She called to me quietly, I couldn't answer.  "Pike, please come here," Mom whispered. I had one shot at this and I knew it. I ran around with Rome hot on my heels and ran right in the house. Mom seemed to know he was freaked out and that she had to shut the door quick, but the puppy wouldn't come in. Out and in I went, over and over, until he relented and came in. Mom slid the door closed and we all relaxed. The house was still asleep so I went upstairs and back to bed. The puppy came up and Mom woke up Dad. They checked him over. He was dirty and scraped up but he would be fine. I was exhausted. These late night puppy shenanigans have to stop. I am glad to have my new brother. However, soon we are going to have to revisit the rules of conduct. 

When morning came, Rome greeted surprised and happy kids. Mom had the forces stand down in Kona as the search had ended and Rome was home. Mom said "good dog Pike" and gave me hugs and I knew deep down that they couldn't have done it with out me.  I have to admit, for once, it was not all about me, but about my family and I am ok with that. RUFF!!!

A CONCERT IN THE DARK

THE PET CHRONICLES

BY JOLENE HEAD

A CONCERT IN THE DARK

WOOBBBOOO, WOOOBBBOOO! I am sitting awake listening to the sound of something I can’t quite place. What is it? WOOOBBOOO! There it is again. This time Pike hears it and gets up. He walks to the top of the stairs, sighs a heavy sigh and comes back to bed. WOOBBOOO! Oh come on, it is 2:30 in the morning! What could possibly be making that noise? It sounds like a horn, only deeper and more breathy. I get out of bed and pad through the house in search of this odd noise. Pike clearly doesn’t care or maybe he already realized that the noise is coming from downstairs- more precisely from the kennel the puppy sleeps in. When I approach the kennel, I am quiet as to not get him all wound up. Then I hear it again. WOOOBBOOO-it echoes off the plastic crate and reverberates through the still and quiet house. I peer in and see too big

chocolate eyes peering back at me from the other side of a big red Kong filled with peanut butter. From this angle I can only laugh at what looks to be a dog playing the latest wind instrument to join the ranks. The french horn has nothing on this highly crafted, piece of red, industrial-strength rubber, chew-toy filled with peanut butter. The noise it makes is a mixture of Jabber Jaws Woobooboo cartoon days and a muffler. Rome’s concert for the masses will however, have to wait until the daylight hours. Pike has come down to check and see why I am not back to bed yet and peers in at the puppy as if to say, “are you kidding me right now, do you not realize some of us have to actually work tomorrow?”

I reach in to take the Kong from the puppy and put it aside for later in the day. I turn to head upstairs when I hear him Squeak, Squeak,Squeak,Squeak,Squeak. UGGGG!!!!!! What now? An encore? Are you serious? Back down the stairs I come to peer through to see the puppy chewing on his raccoon with such wild abandon I almost feel bad at what I am about to do. I reach in, pat his head and remove the raccoon from the kennel and search for anything else that could possibly make noise of any kind. I let him out to go potty and kennel him back up . I lay in bed waiting for something else and just as I drift to sleep, I hear the unmistakeable noise of Elaina screaming, “MOMMY MOMMY!!!!” I race into her room where she turns to me with her deep chocolate brown eyes and says, “mommy, I need some more water”. Of course you do , while we are up, lets go potty. 10 minutes later I am back in bed. Just as I began to drift to sleep, I feel a presence in the room and open my eyes to two eyes the color of the bluest ocean peering at me. Conner is there saying he needs a cough drop. Up I go to the medicine cabinet to retrieve the cough drops and then back to bed. I drift off to sleep when the emergency phone rings and I hear the sound of Jacob saying, “this is Dr. Head”. I lay there and listen to him talk to a worried client and wonder if we are going in... nope, sounds like it can wait until we are open. I rest my head back and Bradly, our oldest, comes in and asks if we need to go in. “No,” I say, “go back to bed.”

I roll over and look at the clock and see the numbers staring back at me with their neon green glow and see that it is 5:49 am and it is time to start the day. As if on-cue, I hear Pike race down the stairs, the puppy is crashing around in his kennel, the water for the shower has the pipes humming and we start another day. I shift in bed and stare at my husband’s still closed-eyes and wonder what the back of my own eyelids might look like. I prepare to start my day. I feed the kids, I feed the dogs and as I drive into Starbucks for my morning coffee fix- I am half-tempted to ask if I can get it by the liter. I do my Wal-mart run where I make the smartest purchase of my entire life.... EAR PLUGS. Here is hoping for some sleep and quite. Sleep well my friends, sleep well.