April Fool...

This morning I am expecting daughter and grandsons to arrive shortly after 10:00. At about 9:45 I wander into the kitchen, notice that new puppy’s newspapers need to be changed. There is a garbage bag on the deck so I gather the papers with said new puppy bounding wildly around my feet, through my legs – changing papers is an exciting event for one so small and new and energetic.

Usually, when I go out onto the deck for such purposes, I leave the patio door open. However, puppy bounding around my feet is also apt to bounce out the door and off the deck, a six foot drop. So I shut the door.

Now I had recently just returned from running errands (who am I kidding, I went to Starbucks), unlocked the door and forgot to lock it again on the inside. My automatic response though, when I go out this door, is to turn the lock so I can get back in.

I turn it out of habit, not realizing I am locking it rather than unlocking it. I carefully shut the door on puppy, stuff the newspaper in the bag and then try to turn the handle. I am locked out. April Fool!

Okay, I think. There are a couple of options here. I can bang on the door with the faint hope that sleeping husband will hear me; I can get the emergency key but that means crawling around in the ice and snow in my stocking feet; or I can wait for daughter and boys to arrive and let me in.

It isn’t really cold and so I choose the latter. I cup my hands and peer through the door at the clock – 9:50. I look down and see puppy looking up wagging her tail. I touch the glass near the bottom of the door. She touches my fingers from the other side of the glass with her nose. It’s like out of a movie. Then she takes off. I can see her whip into the living room. What havoc can she reap there?

Through my cupped hands I can also see the front door, so I will know when daughter and boys arrive. I walk to one end of the deck, then the other to check out the neighbourhood. I breathe in the soft spring air – nice – finally. Not a soul in site but there was frost on the deck and now my socks are wet.

Another check through the door. 10:00. Puppy is nowhere in sight. I wonder if anyone sees me peering into my own house and if they do I wonder if they realize it is my house. Still no one is stirring on the street. Makes me realize that I could be a real burglar or a peeping Tom and no one would notice.

A mourning dove stares at me from a lamppost across the street. I am standing by the birdbath mounted on the railing - her water supply. I hope she has the good sense to go back to her tree before our friendly neighbourhood merlin returns. Sparrows twitter. The dog next door barks. Nothing else moves – not a person or a moving vehicle in sight.

By about 10:05 my feet are seriously cold and I am considering the emergency key but the ice between me and it makes the idea pretty unappealing. I wait. Thank goodness this isn’t a few days ago when the temperature was below zero.

Tiny puppy is back at the door, standing on hind legs looking beseechingly at me through the glass. I worry that in the excitement of people arriving, she’ll get in the way and be stepped on. She weighs roughly 2 pounds.

I see the white vehicle pull up on in front of the house. I see puppy zip down the hall. Quick decision – out through the side gate I go, through slushy ice on the sidewalk at the side of the house so I can go in the front door when daughter opens it with her key, grab the pup, and change my socks. My lord, my feet are cold.

There is a fair bit to be thankful here and a lesson to be learned. Thankful that this didn’t happen in below zero weather, thankful that I knew help was coming, and thankful that my feet have finally warmed up. No kidding – they were purple. The lesson is to always check the lock – either that or wear my house key on a chain around my neck.