Last Thursday we had all the old fence boards, our broken dishwasher and our broken dryer to take to the landfill. We were gone probably 3 or 4 hours with all the other running around we had to do. When we came home we found Silas was tied up to the outside of his dog run with Odus' thin little cat cord. Since the big gate that goes across the cement pad at the back had only been made but not yet put up our yard wasn't entirely secure. We never leave Silas loose in the yard when we're not home (he's either in the garage or dog run) so it wasn't really a concern to just leave him in the dog run with that gate off.

Anyways, we came home and he'd clearly dug a hole under his run (its one corner was sitting on dirt). We figured a kind neighbor had brought him back and used Odus' cord to tie him up (his address and phone # are on his collar). Thankful that there wasn't a note attached to him saying how he'd been terrorizing the neighborhood cats or digging everything up we decided that we needed to get that gate up before Vin left the next day for Taiwan.

That's when a young guy pops his head over the front gate and tells us Silas had been lurking around his yard so he checked his collar and brought him back. He was then just coming back to check that he hadn't escaped again or got himself tangled up (how nice!). We thanked him and asked if Silas had caused any trouble and he assured us he'd been really good and was 'such a nice dog'.

It was like report card day!

The guy leaves and I go into the house to change. I notice the light flashing on the answering machine so I check to see what the message says...

"Hi. My name is Nola and I live down the street. I just called to tell you that your dog is relaxing in my swimming pool. I'm not sure if you know he got out, but I didn't want the SPCA to pick him up so I thought I should call you and let you know where he is. Nice dog. Anyways, give me a call."

There was no answer when I called back so I don't know exactly the logistics or time frame of his wanderings, but it seems he first stopped at Nola's house to take a refreshing dip, and then wandered on to the neighboring yards.

Thankfully school hadn't been let out yet or we would've had very different reports back (hey, your dog just knocked my kid over and stole his ball...your dog has deflated 23 of my kids' balls in 30 seconds...your dog just opened up my kids backpack and helped himself to the sandwich my kid didn't eat...your dog just ran clean over my kid and then cleaned his face with, what my kid tells me smelled like, poo breath...). It could've gone so wrong.