MacIntosh's Excellent Adventure
MacIntosh is, in many ways, a most
excellent canine. Look at him here, powerless to the lure of his destiny (as
represented by a sheep-shaped
tape-measure):
It
also appears he's not immune to the lure of the open forest out back. We have a
small, fenced area behind the house (only those whose world-view is seriously
tilted would call it a "yard" - it slopes at a 45-degree angle and resisted
John's mighty efforts to seed it with grass). Occasionally, say when someone
has had a stomach bug and would rather not throw a frisbee or walk long
distances, we let Tosh out to run around and have a sniff and a pee back there.
He usually amuses himself by barking at squirrels and trying to get the chipmunk
who lives under the deck to come out and play. This activity generally doesn't
keep his interest for too long, and we'll see his long nose and button eyes
outside the slider again within about fifteen
minutes.The other day, having
had a long nap and being pretty bleary, I opened the back door for him.
About a half-hour later, I
realized that the dog was taking his sweet time about coming back up. I went
out to the upper deck and called for him. Funny. Even though he doesn't
usually come right away, I can almost always hear him rustling around in the
dead leaves in the "yard." Feeling that nightmarish, sinking feeling I walked
to the edge where I could see the gate. It was wide open. I scanned the woods.
I called. I whistled. I spluttered expletives as I blasted back through the
house, threw my boots on, and wondered where in hell I was going to start
looking for him. Thankfully,
just as I was getting outside and scanning around, assessing my options, I heard
a mighty rustle and Tosh blasted out from the side of the house, panting, eyes
bright, happy as a doggy little clam. About that same time, our neighbor Kathie
came home from work (she's the doggie godmother of all the canines in the
neighborhood) and our mailman circled back to say he had seen my little
wandering one barking around the neighborhood (lovely
man).It was at this point
that I stopped wondering why I was so calm and collapsed into tears, poor Tosh
completely bewildered at why I would want to wrap my arms around his fuzzy
little body and produce salty liquid.
As a chaser to all of this
drama, I give you Simon's reaction to the Olympic Knitting
Clapotis:
I
think we can label that "nonplussed."
Posted: Thursday - February 23, 2006 at 07:29 AM
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