A couple of years ago, I was sitting in my home office when I turned around and noticed the back end of a large animal walking by my window. I jumped up and went to the front door to see what it was, only to discover a very large, curly haired dog in the front yard. When I opened the front door, the dog looked at me for a minute, then came right to me and leaned on my hip. He then pushed me aside to go see what Dolly was barking about. This was a big dog — I’m thinking an Airedale mix that had to weigh close to 100 pounds. I admit that I was a bit hesitant to wrestle it and try to read its tags, but he seemed friendly enough, so I leaned in and grabbed the collar only to get dog slobber all over me. Was this thing rabid or did it always drool this much? The tag didn’t list an address, only a rabies vaccination record number, and I wasn’t brave enough to venture near the slobber zone twice.
I decided to go in and call some neighbors to see if anyone was missing a pet. Unfortunately, getting in the house without my new friend proved to be more difficult than one would think. He decided that if Dolly dog could be inside, he wanted to come in as well. I pushed, I shoved, but this dog held its ground at the front door having a stare off with Dolly who was going nuts on the other side of the screened door. After a few minutes of wresting a very large, determined dog and using one leg to keep him out and one arm to keep Dolly in, I was able to get in and shut the door. I no sooner had I closed the front door, when I heard a knock, knock, knock on the door. Wow, I thought, someone is already here to claim the dog.
I opened the front door to see the Airedale looking at me. No one else was in site. Are you kidding me? This dog knows how to knock on doors! Call the circus! I laughed and closed the door and took three steps when I heard knock, knock, knock again. The dog is still looking at me. Dolly is barking like crazy, and I’m wondering who is in charge of this zoo.
This time, I open the door and said, “No, Dolly can’t come out and play. Go home,” and close the door. After three more tries, the dog got tired of the game and wandered away. For weeks, I would occasionally hear a knocking at the door and look out to see this persistent dog looking at me. My biggest concern was what I would do if the owners taught this dog how to punch in the code to the garage door opener!