Wednesday, June 27, 2012

A Neighborly Visit

I had just finished working in the backyard. I went through the side gate, closed it behind me, and headed to the front porch. I needed to water the hanging baskets before the start of the predicted heatwave so I grabbed the hose and turned on the faucet. Just then the mail truck stopped in front of the house and the mailman climbed out with a package. I put down the hose and started around the porch railing to meet him halfway through the yard.
I hadn't taken more than a step or two when I saw my next-door neighbor, Karen (William's grandmother), walking across the grass leading a dog. MY dog.
"Where did you get that dog?" the mailman asked Karen.
"It's hers," said Karen.
"Oh my GOD. How did he get out?" I said, my mouth hanging open.
The mailman handed me my package. I took it and put it on the porch.
"I was on the phone with my mom," Karen was telling the mailman, "and the doorbell rang. So I got up and I saw Ray. I thought it was you," she turned to me as she said this, "but it was just Ray. So I told my mom, 'I'll talk to you later, there's a dog at the door.' She thinks I'm crazy now."
The mailman was laughing as he turned and headed back to his truck.
"Ray rang the doorbell," said Karen, "He probably wanted to come over and play with Max." (Max is their eensy beensy Bichon. He had followed Karen over and was sniffing around the yard.)
I took Ray by the collar.
"I have no idea how he got out," I said. "Thank you so much for catching him."
Karen was still marveling at the doorbell-ringing blind dog as I turned to let him in the front door. It was locked so Ray and I headed for the side gate. It was closed. I got to the gate and pulled it open.
"He must have gotten out this way." I yelled over to Karen. "The gate is closed but not completely latched!"
Which means that, in the three minutes that Ray was unsupervised, he had to KNOW that the gate wasn't latched, open it, and close it again, before trotting over to the neighbors to ring their doorbell.
My dog has superpowers.

9 comments:

  1. hahaha, have you witnessed this fantastic doorbell ringing trick?.....sounds like a good video to me ;-)

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    1. Truth is, I didn't even know they HAD a doorbell. We don't have one. And where did Ray get an index finger?????

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    2. He used his opposable thumb to open the latch and THEN used his index finger on the doorbell.
      ~Melinda from Texas

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  2. I think he teleported over to Steve and Karen's and used his nose to ring the doorbell, and he was looking for his boy, William, of course, not that little bichon thing. (Can you think of a better explanation... hmmmm?) You'd better watch the cat room... Ray will be teleporting into it and eating all that yummy, yummy cat food!

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    1. I'm SURE he was looking for William. And if Ray has teleportation powers we are in for a HEAP of trouble.

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  3. Ray has been watching old re-runs and thought he'd try out being either a Full Brush salesman or an Avon lady...you know "ding dong, Avon Calling".

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  4. Regarding Ray's superpowers, I have a friend who early last week drove with her legally blind husband from the Florida panhandle to Sun Valley, Idaho. And he the husband directed her verbally every mile of the way. Like Ray this was a marvelous accomplishment for a blind person. Ray if you can ring that neighbors doorbell again, I will see that you get two rawhide bones to bury next time you come down here for a visit.

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  5. I suggest it's somewhat obvious the corking soundtrack to Ray's amazing feat (once captured on filum)?

    Conor has a 3rd eye too :0/

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