The full moon.

Clearly it was the full moon.  And I have a secret.  The full moon brings out the WORST in me.  I have been in BIG trouble the last couple of days.  BIG trouble.

First there was my runaway episode.  My human let all of us out for a romp in the yard after she got home from shopping.  Frodo and Paxton were QUITE happy to run around and play.  Me?  I SAW something in the yard – and I ran out the door, raced across the lawn and BOLTED into the woods.  Gone.  And then my human could hear me barking.  At something.  She had visions of me with porcupine quills all over my face.  She called.  She shouted.  She pleaded.  She blew a whistle.  She attempted to follow me – but the woods are too dense.  Her friend who is staying with us called too.  And blew a whistle.  But I was on the trail.  And my human could hear me barking further and further in the distance.  She jumped in the car to see if she could spot me up the road somewhere.  Nope.  No sign of me.  She drove to the next road over.  There are only about 4 homes on that road – and she asked a woman out in her yard if she had seen a dog.  Nope.  No sign of me.  By now, about 25 minutes had passed since my departure. Just as my human was about to cry, the phone rang.  Her friend called.  I was home.  Full of sticks in my hair, muddy and smelling like a swamp – but home.  My human was so happy, she forgot for 1 minute to be mad at me.  After that, it was the cold shoulder for about an hour. But then, of course, I won her over.

Then my next escapade….the deck.  My human and her friend have been working on the deck for about two months.  The stain had peeled off – so it required a total scraping before a new finish could be applied.  They have been scraping and scraping to get the old finish off.  You would think Frodo, the dog who digs at everything would have helped.  But he didn’t.  FINALLY, last week it was done.  And the NEW finish was applied last weekend.  The deck looked FANTASTIC.  Absolutely fantastic.  And then, yours truly came along.  I went out on the deck on Wednesday, and became OBSESSED with one spot.  I mean OBSESSED.  I kept sniffing.  And sniffing.  AND sniffing.  And when I was left alone on the deck for 15 minutes, I began to dig and chew and sniff at that same spot.  When my human came out she took one look at me and saw my new rust-colored face, she yelled  “STOP”.  Too late.  I had removed all the new deck finish in a one foot square area.  She and her friend were NOT happy.

They couldn’t understand WHY I was doing it.  I had never done THAT on the deck before.  So her friend went to investigate UNDER the deck.  And GUESS what he found??????  A bird’s nest!!!  Yup.  I could smell those baby birds and I just wanted to say hello.  What’s wrong with that???!!!  Paxton and Frodo are clearly not as sociable as I am. Their noses obviously aren't as good either.

I have now been banished from that area of the deck.  Until it is repainted.  And the birds are gone.

But seriously, NONE of this is my fault.  It was a full moon!!!

©  Linda Wozniak