Puppies Gone Postal

The Saturday before Christmas I slept late and woke up around 10:30. Wandering downstairs I checked my Facebook page while I waited for the dogs to eat their breakfast. My aunt had posted on my wall to be watching for a package that she expected to be delivered that day.

Earlier in the week, she had sent me a tracking number so that I could follow the progress of my package as it travelled from Arizona to Illinois. I logged off Facebook and onto the USPS website to check on the delivery status. To my delight, the package had been scanned as "out for delivery" at my local post office just hours before.

As I flipped back over to Facebook, I heard the distinct crunching sound of tires on packed snow. Peering out the window, I saw the nondescript white car that I recognized as belonging to our postal carrier. Excited to see what my aunt had sent, I rushed to the back door to meet the postal carrier.  By the time I reached the door, she had already dropped the package halfway up our icy walk and was retreating to the warmth of her car.

As I lifted the medium sized express box from the frozen ground, I heard the scratching of doggie claws at the screen door. I knew that I had latched it and yet, before I knew what was happening, two brown blurs of fur bolted past me to inspect the postal carrier's car.

Good naturedly, she patted the dogs on their heads through the open car window and slowly pulled around the circle drive. As she drove, Buster and Bella continued to run in large circles around her car. Always nervous about my "kids" around moving vehicles, I began calling them back tot he house. "Butt-Butt, Bella Bella! Come on lets go get Daddy" I tried. I called repeatedly but they were more interested in the visitor that was leaving without paying them enough attention.

Although not yet dressed for the day, I started to chase them down the driveway. My fuzzy green slippers offered little traction on the snowpack. Wind tore through my teal and white plaid pajama pants. My yellow BCMS Track hoodie offered little protection from the weather. As I pulled my hood up, the postal carrier turned right onto Centerville Road to continue her route. Buster and Bella paused for just a moment to look back at me and then they took off in hot pursuit of the mail carrier.

I ran back to the house to grab the car keys. "Dan! Your dogs are down by Superior Acres!" I screamed as I searched through my purse for the keys. The thud of Dan's feet hitting the bedroom floor above me said he had gotten the message loud and clear, so I headed for the garage.

"Buster! Bella!" I heard Dan's voice booming from the front porch as I fought with my arch nemesis, the garage door. Why wouldn't this damn thing cooperate? My puppies were about a quarter mile down the road by now and not looking like they had any inclination to come home.

Flying out the driveway in pursuit of the dogs, I caught a glimpse of Dan in his white boxer briefs heading back into the house. Ahhhh...good thing we don't have neighbors nearby.

Down the road, the mail lady was doing her best to coax the dogs back towards our farm. She had delivered to the next house on the route and then turned around to head back towards our place. As she started driving, she too was calling the dogs. "Come on doggies! Come on. Let's go home." She was doing her best to lead them back to our house.

By this point, the ADD beasts that they are had already lost interest in chasing the car and they were now making friends with the dogs on the next farm. Fortunately, the farmyard was enclosed with a sturdy fence and the four animals could not mingle. The neighbor dogs didn't look too excited to see company arrive so unexpectedly.

Pulling off the road, I jumped out of the car and fought with the zipper on my coat as I ran to the fence line. As my slippers sunk into calf deep snow drifts, I realized I'd never manage to get my coat zipped and pulled it tight against my body. I moved towards the fence line where Bella was checking out the neighbor dogs in hopes of making friends. Caught up in her own drama, she ignored my continued calls.

Inching closer and closer to Bella, I reached for her collar. Zing! She was off again. Damn! "Bella! Let's go for a ride. Come on girl!" She circled around me once and then danced backwards away from me again. We repeated this several times. Each time, I lunged for her collar as she got close, each time she twisted out of reach at the last nanosecond.

I'm not sure how many tries it took, but after a few minutes, I snagged Bella by her pink nylon collar and started dragging her to the car. As we walked, I shouted for Buster who was now heading off towards the remains of a cornfield at the rear of the property. "Buster! Let's go! Come On ! Time to go home."

Seeing his sister imprisoned and being dragged off towards the car, he did just the opposite of what logic would dictate. He ran right towards me to see what I was doing to Bella. That, and I think he wanted to taunt her that he was still free. As I opened the car door to put Bella inside, Buster pushed past me, nearly knocking me out of my frictionless slippers, and jumped into the car. In one smooth push he was inside and in the rear cargo area ready to go. Bella wasn't quite as eager to head home and had to be lifted into the backseat.

Waving a thanks to the postal carrier who had been watching this play out, I headed for home while she turned her car around once more and continued her route.

As I let the dogs out of the car at home, I held my breath as the looked towards the road once more. Only once they were safely inside the house, did I breathe a sigh of relief.