Eventful Afternoon

Well, after an almost 4-month hiatus, we have returned to our blog!
Speedy realized that he hadn't written for the blog lately, and has inspired himself and I to do so (Sunshine is working on a new post as well).  I talked with him about some ideas, but he had a specific incident in mind.  I signed him in, and left him to his work! I returned and labeled his contribution "A Not-So-Sweet Consequence".
I too, had ideas of what to write about.  Then life happened.  So here was our afternoon:

   Sunshine took a short walk just after lunch.  She returned to tell us of the lovely wood fire one of our neighbors was having.  Not all that uncommon in our neighborhood, but strange for a Tuesday afternoon.  Well, about 15 minutes later, the first fire truck arrived.  The "wood fire" was an old wood character home across our street, 3 doors down. 
   The children spent much of the afternoon at the window, or out on the front deck watching the fire. Seedling giggled as she walked barefoot in the snow.  Speedy and Sprout tested their strength by kicking the last remaining pieces of their snow fort to the ground.  Then Sunshine joined them outdoors and threw Speedy in the snowbank in his t-shirt.  That warranted a warm bath for both Speedy and Sprout.  I thought we were done at this point, but within 5 minutes, both boys were dressed and outside again ( with sweaters, at least, this time!)
   We didn't see flames, rather A LOT of smoke.  We could hear the flames, the water, the windows breaking, and their smoke alarm once the windows were broken, and every neighborhood dog barking.  We enjoyed the lovely wood fire smell filled the entire neighborhood.



JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA

    It wasn't until we went to leave, and Sunshine went to lock up our dog did we notice there was no dog!  We called inside the house and out.  Speedy giggled when a small, yappy dog across the lane would bark back whenever he called out our dog's name.  At this time, we had to leave to drop Sunshine somewhere, but returned quickly to search the area.  Still no luck.  We were beginning to worry that the fire department might have called animal services and had him rescued. Just as we were giving up, a neighbor came running after us. "You're looking for a dog - I have him."

  This man was at a friend's house, but something had told him to go home early.  The fire was well under way at that point, and as he walked by the house to see the fire with his dog, he saw our dog running around, barking and jumping.  When our dog saw them and joined them, he just took him home with them.  He kept our dog in his backyard all afternoon, as neither dog is fixed.  At the time we first went out calling for our dog, he had let our dog into his house to warm up and eat, and had put his dog outside.  This was the dog that had barked each time Speedy called our dog's name.

   So, now all is well.
Our dog is safe, and returned to us. 
Sunshine has been contacted and is thrilled. 
The story of the fire has been aired on the news, and although no one was home at the time of the fire, there had been a dog in the home, whom the fireighters were unable to save. 
I beleive our dog (who never leaves our yard) had gone there to try to save the dog as well.
Thankfully, we had an extra pizza in our freezer from the weekend, and Big Cat Daries (lions, cheetas, etc.) is on, allowing us all a relaxing evening!