Last Minute Hurdles

11 p.m. and I'm finally about to hit the sack. I wasn't planning on being up this late, but my dog had other plans. He had to go to my mom's for the duration, and when I went outside to start loading up the parts for his crate, he pulled a Houdini on me. He usually will visit the neighbors, but not go too far, so I wasn't keeping close tabs on him. Got the crate loaded up (minus three of the four pins needed) and started calling for him. Called high, called low, called loud. No dog. I did some more searching for the pins and couldn't find them, so I went out and hollered some more for Riley to make an appearance. Nothing. Rer.

I headed out in my truck, driving slowly and calling out to him as I drove the normal route of our walk. Crisscrossed side streets, back tracked, backed up. No dog. When I completed the circle of our normal route, I went over the first part of it in the opposite direction, which brought me back around eventually to my house. My neighbors across the street were out and I asked if they'd seen him, but they hadn't. I looked over again at my house and saw a furry form in the shadows who looked very much like one Riles P. Skellenger who had gone AWOL. I pulled back into my driveway (running over my reflector/marker thingy), and he came over. Smelling like spaghetti. He'd either found some trash or found some other dog's food, or someone thought he looked underfed (yeah right!). He did look a little guilty, but I didn't give him too hard a time, since I was glad to see him.

Got him loaded up and headed to Grandma's house, with a quick stop at Home Depot for a new reflector, and to look for some suitable replacement pins to hold the walls of his crate upright. On a hunch, (hey Quasimodo!), I checked and found that the reflector marker for the driveway was the correct size and of ample length to substitute for the drop pins, so I picked up four and was out the door in a snap.

Back in the truck, Riley whimpered occasionally, and I thought it was because he knows I'm leaving. He's seen me packing and cleaning the house, and knows from experience what that means. I got to mom's house and left him in the truck since it was really damp out, and went ahead and got the crate components into the laundry room and started to assemble them. The reflector markers are about 8 inches too long, but that's fine...they do the job. Three of those went into the corners, with the correct pin going into the fourth corner. Turns out I didn't have the roof of the crate in what I brought. I doubt he'll try to get out...this is more for a night measure since it's getting chilly and has been really damp. Daytime, he'll be out in the fenced yard, so most nights, he'll sleep like a baby in his crate.

After finishing the crate assembly, I went out to the truck where Riles was waiting and reached in the open window of the back seat to discover (rather suddenly and uncomfortably) that he hadn't been able to keep his Italian snack on his stomach, and had made a bit of a mess on his pillow. Now he really looked guilty. My mom brought out paper towels and a trash bag, and I got to clean up the mess while she backed off, trying not to dry heave. Thankfully, the pillow case, and his two stuffed toys were easily washable, and by the time I left, they were clean and tossing in the dryer.

So my short jaunt to drop the dog turned into almost a three hour excursion. And it's now 11:30. But the house is clean, the bags are ready, my clothes are laid out and the weather is looking good for the start of the day. The excitement is there, so I don't know if sleep will be to accessible. Hope so!

I do keep smelling a marinara sauce, though...