“Great.  Which one of your psycho spaniel friends is in trouble this time?”

“It’s not a friend, well, it’s not a spaniel friend,  it’s Momma Dog.  Remember when we took the food out to the raccoons yesterday and she sat the tupperware bowl and it’s lid down on the path, then we went a different way and didn’t come back for it?”

“Righto, Sherlock Spaniel.”

“Well, when we went back for it this morning, it was completely gone.  Vanished into thin air.  Something has filched it and then came back for the lid!”

“Crikey!  I’ll get my detecting kit.”

“I smell him Nemo, I smell him!”

“I do too.  Let us out Momma Dog!”

“All right, but if that skunk lifts his tail or does a little dance with his front paws, you two hightail it back up here pronto.”

“Hi skunky, why are you out so early?”

“Are you kidding me Huck, it’s fifty degrees outside.  I just couldn’t stay in my den any longer.”

“But winter isn’t over, it could snow or freeze any time in the next eight weeks and there isn’t anything for you to eat yet.”

“I thought I’d eat a little cat food from your back deck until the insects hatch out.  Or maybe some corn that the picker missed.”

“Just don’t be getting excited anywhere near our back deck, Momma Dog would give us a tomato juice bath and we’d hate it.  Plus stay off the road, threatening a car doesn’t work all that well for skunks, you guys are slower than molasses in January.”

“Right Nemo.  How would you like to watch me lift my tail and hit the knothole on that tree stump?”

“Run for it Huck!”

“Heh, heh, heh.  Cat food here I come.”

1/20/12

No sign of strangers yet.  Nemo and I have been on alert for a week now and barking at every noise.  Outside of chasing a cheeky squirrel out of the backyard yesterday, things have been quiet.  It’s cold today, right now it’s 13 degrees.  Momma Dog went down to Glenwood to visit Dale at Hospice House yesterday while Nemo and I kept the house safe.  Later mates, Huck

“I am not saluting you small furry terrier!”

“Haven’t you ever watched any war movies Nemo?  You have to march back and forth and salute when you see someone in uniform.”

“You are not in uniform, you are wearing the same rag tag shaggy coat you always wear.”

“Do not lose sight of the goal here Nemo.  We are patrolling our back driveway because Carla and two other neighbors were broken into last Thursday.”

“If Pepper hadn’t died, the thieves would have had a harder time getting into Carla’s.  Nobody messes with a Rottweiler.”

“Righto mate, but Pepper had a tumor and now we have to be ready in case they strike here next.  They had to be pretty fearless to break into three farm houses in broad daylight.  Now let’s see some marching.”

“Hup, two…..What if they come up the front driveway?”

“No idea.  Maybe a big battery?”

“Great dog, I don’t get this modern art.  Give me a chew bone that looks like a chewbone.”

Momma Dog is going to an art exhibit at the Bemis Center today, then to the Durham Museum to see the movie costume display, then to the tea shop.  We are going to shred toilet paper and nap.

“Oh boy Nemo, today is Friday the 13th!”

“I am not going out at all today.”

“Why not?  Afraid you might slip on the ice and break your hip?”

“No, I’m watching tv all day.”

“Momma Dog just put the squeaky toy in her coat pocket.  We’re going to play throw the toy up the hill and I’ll be the only one to chase after it and stand guard until Momma Dog gets there and throws it again.  I’ll probably drip saliva all over it.”

“Ick!  Alright, I’m coming.  I’ve got to find my wool scarf.”

“It was like Disneyland Nemo, I was a pig on ice, I didn’t know which way to slide first.  Our cousin Daisy has all kinds of toys, and a full food bowl, plus there was a Gestapo Weimaraner patrolling the back fence barking insults in German.  Amber and Grant were there to hold me and show me the snake’s log and his old tank, but it’s almost an impossible situation because there are so many places to hide in that house.  I didn’t even get a whiff of snake.  I tried to pile up some toys to bring home but they caught me.”

“I say we stake out a goat.”

“A goat?”

“Yes, that what they do to catch lions.”

“I tell you Nemo, there are worse things in life than being canine.  We could have been born goats.”

“Aaaaaahhhhhh!  Nemo, stop sneaking up on me and hissing!”

“You jumped about a foot!

Ring. Ring. Ring.

“It’s for you Huck.”

“Yes Ma’am.  Yes, I can come.  This afternoon?  Yes Ma’am.  Thank you Ma’am.  Bye Ma’am.  Nemo, grab your stuff, we’re going in.”

Oh no WE are not!  I’m not going anywhere.  That snake is getting hungry by now and I love my big furry paws.  They are one of my best features and I don’t want them ventilated!”

“Blimey!”

“I most certainly am!”

“It’s a python Huck, a stike and strangle python!”

“If Grant (Momma Dog’s grandson) needs me, I’m going.  It’s the chance of a lifetime.  Put on the Steve Irwin video, I can’t remember whether you grab them by the head or the tail.”

“I knew when Grant agreed to babysit that snake, I wasn’t going to Lisa’s anymore.  Now it’s gotten loose in the house and nobody can sleep.  It’s liable to eat our cousin Daisy.”

“The only reason Grant was babysitting that snake was because the owner is trying to sell his house and nobody wants to see a house with a snake in it.  Even the real estate person doesn’t want to come and show it.  Besides, it’s only fourteen inches long, it’s still a baby and they just need me to sniff him out.”

“Sniff him out!  While he’s waiting to drop down and strangle you?  I don’t think so, I’m not going.  It could strike you and put out your eye.  I know you, you won’t be able to resist barking and jumping at him trying to make him mad, and I will not set a paw outside the car over there.”

“It’s something I’ve been training for all my life, a chance to make Steve proud.  I’m the right terrier at the right time and nothing is more powerful than that.  Now put that video on and slow down the speed.”