Double Dog Dare

Or, the continuing adventures of Rosie the Dog.

So, when last seen on this page, Rosie the Dog had been returned home after an amazing and unbelievable trek of at least 17 miles through the desert. She was tired and sore-pawed, but otherwise fine. I reinforced our fence, we brought in a house-sitter to look after her, and off we went to New York City, for a bat mitzvah, a Buddhist wedding, and a memorial gathering in Central Park for my grandmother.

In the middle of this memorial, while standing around a newly-dedicated park bench in the middle of the park (in 97-degree, high-humidity swelter), the Wife started getting text messages from our house-sitter, informing us that Rosie had run away again. Seems the idiot neighbor child had invited himself over, looking for Thing 1, and had left the gate wide open.

That was last Saturday. We did what we could over the phone, but we couldn't hang up signs or go looking for her until Wednesday, when we returned home. No sign of the dog.

Well, now we were in trouble. Thing 1's birthday was Friday, and the dog had been the Only Gift He Wanted for close to a year. And I had no confidence that we'd ever see her again. It was now five days since she had run, and no one had seen her.

So, the Wife and I went back to the Humane Society and found another perfectly lovely mutt--happy and friendly and sweet as could be. Her owners had given up on her because she had a nasty habit of murdering cats. But other than that, she was a sweetheart. We returned later in the day with kids in tow, to see how they responded to her. It was an instant love-fest. And so, just in time for the birthday, Amber the Dog came home with us.

And all was well until the day after Thing 1's birthday, when we got a call from the nice lady to whom Rosie had run the first time--Rosie's erstwhile neighbor. Hi, yes, Rosie's here again. I would have called sooner but I've been sick...

Well, as far as I was concerned, this was the hand of destiny, and Rosie clearly belonged with this nice lady. But she already had too many dogs (although she did admit that, if it happened again, she'd take it as a Sign From Above and keep the dog).

The Wife, who, you may remember, was never a dog person to begin with, had no problem with the idea of keeping both dogs, on the theory that Rosie was running away because she missed her doggie friends back in her old neighborhood. And, in fact, she seems much happier now that she has Amber to play with.

The skink, however, is not amused.