Crazy Dog People

Yesterday morning, I heard the doorbell and looked up to see a cop car in the driveway. Ruh-roh.

I spent the next five minutes wrestling the dogs into the garage, and then opened the door to a sheriff's deputy. He said someone had reported a Chocolate Lab and a Black Lab running loose around the fairgrounds (which are a half-mile from our house), and wanted to know whether they were ours.

"No, sorry," I answered. "All of our dogs are black."

"Oh," he said. He explained he'd already talked to another Lab owner in town as well as a few other folks, and they'd all referred him to the couple who walk their dogs each morning.

"They walk every day," he added.

"That's us," I confirmed.

"Up and down 99."

"That's us."

"Male and female, four or five dogs."

"Yeah, that's us," I said yet again.

"Oh," he said. "Around 8:00?"

Just how many Rickreall couples do you think walk four dogs every morning, rain or shine, I wanted to ask, but instead I smiled and confirmed he had the right house.

We tried to brainstorm whose dogs they might be, but he'd already talked to or ruled out everyone I suggested.

Our conversation made me realize again how many people in our town have dogs, which then made me wonder again why whenever anyone finds a loses a dog, they contact us. Maybe they figure we have so many, we might not notice one more or less?