Well I'll be damned.

This is the story of how I seriously under estimated my dog and pointed fingers at children.

A few weeks ago, on a really hot afternoon, Squirt started barking hysterically. It's not uncommon for him to bark, he barks at things worth barking at. People entering the house (as annoying and embarrassing as it is, I'm able to sleep very well at night knowing he will do the same if anyone were to break in), other dogs passing by, even little girls crossing the street in front of our house. But this afternoon his tone reached a level that I hadn't heard before, which made my look out the window to make sure he was ok.

Behind our backyard runs an alley that about 15 houses share. Kids have been riding their bikes, skateboards etc up and down all summer and he has more or less learned to accept this and doesn't worry himself over it too much anymore. That day there was a boy who was running up and down the alley, barking at Squirt and basically taunting him. I watched this for a couple minutes, and after a couple passes the boy left. I chalked it up as harmless boy antics and went on doing whatever I was doing.

A few minutes later, the barking starts again. The boy was back with a friend. They both ran up and down behind our fence, barking and just being little jerks. I let this happen for a couple minutes, then quietly slipped out our backdoor and opened up the back gate - to the boys' horror of being caught.

I pulled out my serious mama voice, told them to cut it out and that taunting animals is cruel. The original boy very quickly sold out his friend, pointing at him and saying that it was all him. Isn't it somewhat funny and tragic how quickly kids will do that? I called the kid out on it, telling him not to rat out his friends and lie about it. I said that if I caught them doing it again, their parents would be getting a visit from me. I have no idea who these kids belong to, but they don't need to know that! ;)

That weekend we drove up north to visit my brother in law and sister in law. We were only going to be gone for the day so we left the dogs in the backyard, as we have done several times in the past. Tons of water, food and adequate shade. About half way through the day, my husband gets a call from an unknown number from a kind lady saying that Romeo (our 13 year old dog) had wandered into their garage and made himself comfortable. We asked if she saw Squirt, but she hadn't. So this meant me having to leave my BIL's to come home (about a 80 minute drive) to get the dogs back inside. Luckily we had a spare car at my BIL's, so Adam was able to continue working on the project he had started there and he planned to come home later that evening when he was done.

My initial thought was those boys exacting their revenge. Neither of the dogs dig and there aren't any loose fence boards. As I pulled into our alley, there was Squirt waiting for me. The gate was wide open, which proved to me that there was mischief afoot. I got him into the backyard and visited the neighbor who had found Romeo. She was so nice and accommodating.. She even let him into the house and gave him a blanket to lay on in there.

A few days later Adam, Penny and I took a family walk around the neighborhood. We opted to leave the dogs - again making sure the gate was securely latched and no loose boards, etc. We were gone for 20 minutes - and upon our return, found Squirt and Romeo cavorting around our front yard. >.<

That was the last straw! I was sure it was those boys, probably living close enough to see when we leave the house and letting the dogs out. I wasn't mean when I talked to them that day, but I used my adult voice to let them know I was serious. So Adam put a lock on the gate, and for the last couple weeks there hasn't been an incident. The war had been won! I imagined the look on those boys' faces when they realized their fun was over.

Then yesterday, Adam took Penny for a walk in the afternoon while I stayed around the house. Squirt was in the backyard and unhappy to have been left behind. He didn't realize that I was at home, and I kept it that way to kind of see what he does while we're gone. He ran around the backyard for a few minutes and I grew bored and did some chores. A few minutes later I heard a really odd noise - so I peeked out of a window.

You know how a lot of gates have a string pushed through so that you can open the latch from the inside? Imagine my unbelieving eyes when I saw that Squirt was furiously pulling on that string and pawing at the gate. He's an Australian Shepherd - notoriously smart dogs. But this was beyond intelligence. This dog is brilliant.

It was Squirt all along. The damn dog figured out how to open the gate.