Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Boston and the barn . . .

We were all pretty worried when we heard about those explosions -- brother-in-law John has often run in the Boston Marathon, and since they live up in DC, well . . .  we were pretty frightened.  But Mark called Vickie and she said that he was over in Louisville looking into a "beef" issue for the International Trade Commission.  Relief! 

And I was pretty frightened last night, too, when I couldn't find Duke (again!) when it was time for their dinner.  He always keeps a close eye on the house and when he sees someone head for the barn he RACES up and beats us to his stall every time.  But yesterday evening - nope.  None of them were anywhere near the barn.  So I got everything ready and went out and called them, and Lizzie and Arthur came up -- but no Duke!  It hadn't occurred to me until then that something was seriously wrong.  So I started racing around the pasture to see if I could find him back there.  Both the front door and the double doors at the top of the ramp into the storage cottage were tightly closed so I didn't think he could be in there.  So I began to be afraid he might have drowned or something there were no openings in the fence and the pond is deep and overflowing after the 4 1/2 inches of rain on Sunday night.  But fortunately, I did decide to go look in the cottage.  I had to pry open the doors that were jammed completely shut, but there he was, standing in the center of the building surrounded by large things like the mower and the weed sprayer, and DRIPPING wet with sweat and unable to get out even after I opened the door!  So I struggled some of those heavy items out of the way.  Then  Lizzie and Arthur came back out into the pasture and when they saw Duke they BOTH went to hollering like crazy outside the door and he actually JUMPED over some of the stuff and raced down the ramp.  Then he kept running around and around the pasture, apparently really grateful to be out!  Took him a good 10 minutes to calm down and go up to the barn to eat . . . NOT a normal reaction from Duke at all.

I have NO idea how he could have gotten in, and certainly no idea how the doors could possibly have been solidly closed AFTER he did.  I had to wonder if someone locked him in there -- but who? . . . and why?

I don't know exactly what happened, but I'll tell you what -- I DO know that either David or Mark is going to put serious locks on those doors into the cottage.  That sprayer he was standing right above was filled with poison and he was dripping wet with sweat.  What if he had tried to drink that stuff???  What if he had tried to get to the door and had gotten a leg caught in some piece of equipment?  What if he had fallen when he jumped over that mower and some other stuff when he headed out the door after I opened it?

I don't want to think about what could have happened to him.  I just want to know he CAN'T get back in there - and that the doors are going to be locked so no one else can PUT him back in there, if that's what happened.

Sigh.

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