WHO'S SITTING WHOM?

Probably one of the most difficult things about living out in the boonies is finding animal care when one needs to go out of town.  It's really too far for town'ers to come out to the End of the Rainbow Valley for daily chores like feeding/checking on the animals. Needless to say, it's wonderful to find folks nearby in the Coulee who one can reciprocate the good deed.

It was actually my turn to reciprocate pet sitting this past Thursday. Only this wasn't a smooth beginning, to say the least. You see the pet owners had left on a very early flight and had sent me a FB message. It concerned their smallest dog who tends to chase after them when they depart. I should be aware they had left him enclosed in his doggie crate inside the house and he was awaiting his freedom. 

No problem except for one small thing, upon arrival I discovered the garage door I usually walk in, is locked.  All right, all I need to do is enter the garage door opener code.  BUT either I have forgotten /messed it up/ it's being finicky. I'm opting for the latter. Their second garage door has another code but for the life of me I couldn't remember that code correctly either. (Imagine ominous music playing in the background of this scene.)

Heck, I couldn't call home to verify the numbers/ check my phone for emails because of course, there's "no" reception. Once I remember the owner mentioning a back door being left open so I followed the perimeter of the garage in search of that unlocked back door.  Dang, wouldn't you know it, of course, it's locked! By this time I'm getting a bit anxious and so is the caged up dog as he's barking his little head off. Sweat is beading on my brow as I circle back around to the front of the house where the other dog is awaiting me.

It dawns on me as I stand staring at the big dog in front of a doggy door, I should try to fit through the medium size opening. It was worth a try, right? As I begin the contortions, I envision being stuck like a sausage in its casing. Now what good is that going to do? Natureman wouldn't miss me as he was not only still in bed, he would assume I had already headed into town and wouldn't even miss me for a good 8 hours. NOPE, getting stuck would not be a smart idea.

I got back in the car, drove home to have WiFi reception, found the garage code after scrolling through a couple months of messaging. Returned to my charges and retried the code sequence more than once. But wouldn't you know, that code pad decided to be ornery. No luck. I had been warned, the buttons could be fickle. Jeepers.

As I am pondering my demise, I spy their big truck parked over in the side yard. Gee, maybe there's a garage door opener in the truck's cab. (For those of you who don't know, we tend not to lock our cars out here in the country.) I dash over and lo and behold there's an opener on the visor, my heart soars.  Pointing it in the direction of the garage doors, I ferociously start punching the buttons.  Over and over again all to no avail. Big sigh- nada, nix, nothing, rien. 

BUT something shiny catches my eye on the divider between the front seats, a key ring. It  has 2 keys on it. One obviously the truck's and the other looks like a house key.  What have I got to lose? I grab it, run to the garage door, insert the key into the lock, jiggle it in and it clicks. Hallelluyah, I'm in and I free one very happy little guy for breakfast.

I swear all four animals look at me like you've got to be kidding, our parents left you in charge of taking care of us. Yeah, I'm also beginning to wonder who's taking care of whom...