The Break-In The Break-Out

Monday morning started just like any other normal day. Reese and I woke up, let Rudy outside to sniff around, let him back in, and then I jumped in the shower. When I got out of the shower, I heard Rudy barking non-stop, like I've never heard him bark before. The only problem was he sounded like he was outside, and I thought I had let him back in the house.

I sat Reese down in the living room and ran out into the backyard to see what the fuss was all about. No Rudy. No sign of him anywhere in our entire backyard. But I could hear him barking outside.

A little background info... Our neighbors next door have this little fenced in area between our fence and their house. They never go in it and apparently have no clue there's a possum colony there. We know, because the mother possum likes to run along our fence at night and hiss at Rudy. And, a few months ago, some baby possums showed up in our backyard. Rudy managed to kill at least 4 of them, and George has trapped 2 of them in a cage we rented from the city. They then take the possums to a nature preserve, where they live happily the rest of their days.

So, when I heard Rudy barking like crazy and couldn't see him, I thought he had jumped the fence to get a possum and was stuck in the neighbor's yard. I went back in the house and looked out the front window. I couldn't see Rudy, but when I turned around, I saw this:


That's the front door - OPEN. I panicked and yelled, "HELLO?", fully expecting an intruder to answer. There have been some home invasions in our area recently, and I thought we were the next victims. I honestly thought someone attempted to break into our house and Rudy ran them out. Because if he'll bite me, just think what he'd do to a burglar!

I scooped up Reese, grabbed the phone, and ran out front to call George. Now, remember that I said I had just showered? I was looking quite lovely. I had wet hair, no makeup, a green and yellow Napoleon Dynamite "liger" t-shirt, and purple yoga capri pants. Hideous. But I was trembling with fear by this point, and didn't care.

When I got outside, I realized I could hear Rudy loud and clear. I ran to the side of the house and saw this:


Look closely - that's Rudy barking at a trapped possum. Yeah. Rudy was violently attacking the cage, biting and pawing at it, trying his best to get that possum. The poor critter was hissing and putting his paws up to protect himself. I'm really surprised he didn't have a heart attack.

Did Rudy learn to open the front door? Did someone break in? Now I was really confused.

I called George and we figured it all out. He had gone out front to check the cage early in the morning, but it was too dark to see if anything was in it. He forgot to lock the front door back, so when I let Rudy in first thing in the morning, it created a suction which opened the front door.

We solved that mystery, but I still didn't know what to do with Rudy. I could not even get him to look my direction (even when I offered treats), because he was so enthralled with the possum. There was only one option. George had to drive 20 minutes home from work to get Rudy. The stupid dog barked continuously the entire time. Reese and I prayed that Rudy wouldn't bite George when he came to get him, and just a few minutes later, George sped up to the house. Thankfully, Rudy saw George and raced to him, and George was able to drag him into the house.

I think it took Rudy about an hour to quit panting and it took me just about as long to quit trembling.

In case you're keeping score:

Rudy: 4, George: 3