On my way home earlier, I had noticed two unfamiliar dogs wandering in our neighborhood. I stuck a few treats in my back pocket before heading to the store, just in case they were still roaming around lost. And sure enough, they were: a young shepherd/lab mix who could have easily been a black version of Rufus, and an elderly beagle. The beagle had a collar on with a tag bearing his name ("Short Stop") and his owner's number. Leaving a message on the owner's voicemail, I thought to myself, Well, now you've gone and done it. Got to look after him until the owner calls back. Another fine mess... Although the black dog had no collar, I was very hesitant to let him keep wandering back and forth in traffic on his own, so the three of us headed back to the ol' Chateau Rufus.
At first, I figured I'd just keep the two visitors out front. Sophie was out in the backyard, however, and I walked around to ask her to keep an eye on the newcomers while I brought out a crate for Short Stop. Amelia and Rufus ran to the gate to greet me, right up to the point where Shadow (the black anti-Rufus) rounded the corner behind me.
Ohboy.
Amelia didn't take too well to a strange dog following me, with a fence between us. The argument that ensued was loud, scary, and particularly hard on our gate (which survived, but I think it might need a little work this weekend). Apparently, her guard dog instincts run deep. So while Sophie came around to keep Shadow in check, I went and brought Amelia out front for a slightly more controlled meeting of the canines.
There was a little tension at first, while the two sniffed and sized each other up. Then, instead of growling or lunging at the visiting dog, Amelia flopped down into the biggest play-bow I've ever seen, and she and Shadow rolled around like a couple of puppies. Rufus came out next, with predictably similar results. Everyone showed a casual interest in Short Stop, who preferred to let the younger dogs act silly while he relaxed in his crate. Reasonably assured that the dogs were going to get along fine together, we set about doing some all-but-forgotten yardwork while the puppies rolled around in the piles of leaves.
Short Stop's owner finally called back (Shadow, it turns out, was theirs as well - he'd apparently ditched his collar at some point), and we agreed to look after the two dogs until they got off work, and could come take them home. Short Stop had begun baying, however, apparently upset over being left out of the fun. Rather than subject the neighbors to a beagle serenade, we let him come into the backyard and hang out with the other dogs. He walked around the yard with Amelia for a minute, paused as they passed Shadow, then promptly laid into the black youngster with a distinctly un-playful wrath.
Ohboy, take two.
What followed was a flurry of activity. I snatched Short Stop up, scruffing him until he regained his composure. While my attention was on the beagle, Rufus rushed over to the (justifiably) panicked Shadow - who promptly lunged at him. I heard Amelia's rolling bark from beside me, saw her leap forward, and thought: this is going to get very ugly, very fast.
But it didn't. Amelia tackled Shadow in mid-lunge, knocked him onto the ground, and just pinned him there like a wrestler until everyone had calmed down. Short Stop went back to his crate to cool his heels, and the other three dogs kept cavorting around, demolishing our piles of leaves as if nothing had happened. By the time their owner arrived to pick them up, Short Stop had calmed down again, Shadow had played himself breathless, and both were thrilled to be heading home. Rufus and Amelia got some wet food with their dinner, helped me bag up a few more leaves, then curled up to sleep off a hard day's romp.
Incidentally, our next-door neighbor pointed out today that Amelia was tearing up our bags of leaves. In fact, she was dragging them back out across the yard, then ripping them open - apparently, she had so much fun playing that she wanted to reset all the leaf-piles for another game today.
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