Tuesday, May 5, 2009

ROSIE DOES A COMPLETE 360

Sunday afternoon at Rosalie Park - Frank is working in the shed and Dale is reading a book (napping). Rosie, the Chocolate Taunting Temptress is basking in the warm spring sunshine on the driveway. All is calm and peaceful.  UNTIL ...

Frank whips the sliding door open and asks "Where's Rosie?". 

We both go into panic mode, because she's our baby. She's six years old, but we have had her only for eighteen months. She was a "free" dog who had had way too many puppies (25 in total) and is gun-shy so she needed a new home with no more Rosie-puppies, no guns, lots of room to run, her own pond to swim in, her own cats, and where she could suck the hearts right out of her new owners with her furiously wagging tail, big brown eyes and puppy ears. She's very gentle and well-behaved. We don't even have to keep the gate closed. Make that "didn't have to keep the gate closed". And she always comes when she's called. Make that "always came when she was called". UNTIL SUNDAY. 

Gate open. Dog not appearing. Frank checks the barn. I check the front yard. NO DOG. 

Then I remember something from Saturday. There is one house between ours and Becky and Colin's. The between house has new people (they are not really "new people" - they are our age, but new-to-us people) living there. They have been doing a lot of work - clearing the ugly stump forest and tearing down old fencing and trying to create a park-like setting (just like we are). And they have a pond. One that Rosie had been swimming in just the day before with her new best friend - Becky and Colin's Cain, the Chocolate Frog Dog. Swimming was followed by a bunch of ball-throwing and pats and running free and just good ol' fashioned neighbourhood friendliness.

Apparently Rosie decided that more fun was available than shed-working and book-reading and off she trotted. According to Becky, Rosie helped herself to a dip in the between house's pond then headed to Becky and Colin's for a dog-frolic with the Chocolate Frog Dog. 

I showed up with my stern dog-mom look, but realized she'd already had a great time and I could not say "bad dog" because she was just doing what she had done the day before. Rosie was having a great time with the Chocolate Frog Dog, Becky and Colin and another couple, C & W. The humans were very interested in a horse that was alone in the riding ring and were looking over some kind of chart marked off in squares. Turns out they were having a fund-raiser for their horse club and had sold tickets for each square. The idea was that the squares corresponded to areas of the riding ring and they were waiting for the horse to poop and whoever owned the corresponding square on the chart would win the pot. 

Becky asked if I would like to buy a ticket - she could lend me $20. She trusts me - what with just living up the street and all and they come here for G&T and Rumoli and we give the kids "little pops" (half-size Coke) and usually support her horse club fund raisers (beer & burgers, silent auctions, etc.) So I buy 4 tickets, have a cup of coffee, call Rosie and we head home. I am happy because we have great neighbours and I have our Chocolate Taunting Temptress trotting along beside me.

GATE GETS CLOSED.

Monday morning I get a phone call from Becky. Horse has pooped. On one of my squares. Thanks to Rosie, I won $360.

Love to my family and friends.

Kae-Lee with her "little pop", Rosie, the Chocolate Taunting Temptress
and Cain, the Chocolate Frog Dog (taken when we still had snow on the ground)