Whoa Doggy

I just had a pretty funny man/animal experience. My neighbors to the left of me have two rather large dogs that are always tied up behind their house. For quite some time, these dogs have barked at me whenever they see me, especially if I'm doing something in my back yard. Well yesterday, I made a few trips to my compost pile and not once did they bark at me. I felt pretty good about myself--like I had finally been accepted into the neighborhood.

So today, it's about 8:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning and I'm getting ready to make some tea. I hear both the dogs barking and going at it (not really an uncommon thing, but they're always barking at something) and I decide to open my back door and check it out. What I call my "back door" is technically on the side of my house. It is off of my kitchen and opens into a little alcove where to the left is a little storage room and straight ahead are some steps that lead down into my yard. When I open this door I am facing my neighbors' house, and those dogs, who always perk up and see what I'm up to.

So I open my back door and the two dogs are going crazy--barking, running around, pulling at their chains--at what seems to be something in my back yard. I take a few steps and peek around the corner of my house. Low and behold, there are three stray dogs creeping out from the trees into my back yard. They weren't particlarly mean looking or anything--just that ratty, dirty, unkempt look that stray dogs have. The three dogs are about fifty feet from me and I say, "Get outta here you punks." The three of them stop in their tracks and look at me in silence, not knowing what to think. I say, "Yeah you." Without missing a beat, the three of them turn around and stroll back from where they had come, as if I was their lord and master. I yell to my neighbors' dogs, "See, I got your backs." They look at me incredulously with what seem to be smiles on their faces.