Where’s Emma?

I think there is nothing better than Friday night. After the animals are fed and all the chores are done I look forward to a night of relaxation. Nothing special, maybe watching television, sometimes even going to bed early. I love Friday night.

This Friday night started so well. The kids were watching a movie. I was reading the newspaper on the internet. That’s when I heard Ivy announce “Emma’s gone”! For those of you that aren’t familiar with Emma, she is our Great Pyrenees dog.

Great Pyrenees are used as guard animals by livestock breeders. They are extremely courageous. Courage that borders on stupidity. They will guard their property with their lives. The problem is, Emma thinks all of North America is her property.

While our family was settling in on Friday night, Emma decides it would be a great time to jump the fence and chase something.

It would have been really great of her to tell us, “Hey, I’m gonna chase this bear (or mountain lion or coyote) for a while”. But, she decided to go alone. Of course, when Walter (our Great Dane/Pit Bull mix) realized Emma was gone, he decided he would go with her.

Walter will return when we blow the dog whistle. If he’s not too far away and can still here it. Emma won’t return until she gets a ride back in the car.

After fifteen minutes of yelling for Walter and Emma, which was heard by the neighbors a 1/2 mile away, our family fired up the cars. We were going on a dog safari. Our neighbors decided they weren’t going to enjoy their Friday night with all the yelling going on and they joined the safari. Ivy (our brilliant child) takes off in the dark to follow the dogs into the creek bed. Of course she armed herself with a FLASHLIGHT and a dog whistle.

Forty-five minutes later, and 1-1/2 miles down the road, Walter heard the whistle and ran back to the neighbor’s truck. Emma realized her ride was here and it was probably time to go home.

The dogs came home and went to bed. I came home with an adrenalin rush. They are sleeping, I’m writing this story. Aren’t Friday night’s great?

Our crazy lives!

Monner