March 8, 2011

Open Door Policy

The more children that you have, the more likely that you will not notice a couple more wandering through your house.

This seems to be the general consensus in my neighborhood. At some point almost every day I'll walk into a room in my house and find a seven year-old that doesn't belong to me.

"Where do you live?" I asked the boy who I found in my laundry room this afternoon.

"Down the street."

"Does your mom know you're here?"

"Yep."

For the most part, I don't mind if the neighborhood congregates on my driveway. I do have a problem, however, with extending the open door policy to pets.

For two days in a row, I have opened the front door to my house and a dog has rushed in.

At first I thought it was two different dogs, but my daughter pointed out that between Day 1 and Day 2, the dog had gotten a hair cut.

The dog belongs to a neighbor who has a malfunctioning electric pet fence. The good news is that the dog is very friendly. The bad news is that it weighs 100 pounds and generally has no interest in leaving my house.

Yesterday it took me fifteen minutes and a chicken leg to get the dog outside. Today I didn't have it in me.

The dog stayed for three hours.

***
Last call for the Walgreens $100 Giveaway. The contest ends this week!

27 comments

Deanna said...

you are a saint. three hours????? wow. I rarely let other children besides my own stay for that long. LOL!

TheQueen@TerrorsInTiaras said...

When we were moving into our house, the neighbor's dog came right in and wandered all over the house. It took me, three movers, and two of my children to get it out of the house. The next day, he ate the girls' picnic lunch I had set up for them outside while I unpacked. Needless to say, we never have gotten a pet, we have one we can borrow any time we want to. Or don't want to.

Kerrie (and Jason) said...

One place we rented there was a huge black cat who used to visit. If you tried to remove him he'd have a go at you. So we'd let him stay until he wanted to leave most of the time.

Emily Heizer Photography said...

You know what, count your blessing Jana, I've had this damn beagle in my house for 4 months. He looks at the open door and my wild gesturing with a blantant doggie, "Are you nuts?" and goes back to my bedroom and crawls in my bed. Between the sheets. With his head on my pillow.

Three hours. Lucky woman.

I'm So Fancy said...

Well I'd take a well-groomed dog over a random 7 year-old any day!

zippityzerns said...

I'll trade you coyotes for dogs. Sigh. Last night coyotes started yipping and howling in our back pasture. It was such a primal sound, it made me wish I owned a spear or even a big rock, but all I had was a cell phone, so I called my husband in Detroit. If coyotes run in my house, I'm planning to throw my cell phone at them--hard.

Janet's page said...

That is so funny! I can't even imagine mine going into someone's house and me not coming to get it promptly!!

Jesus Chick said...

Hahahahahahahaha!

Angela said...

LOVE IT!!! Random children and animals. You are the best!

Anonymous said...

I "think" I could handle random children. Random animals not at all! You are a much nicer mommy than me! Wait does that make me meaner than the meanest mom mom????

Kari M. said...

Once again, I would so love to be your friend in real life. How I need to hang out with people for whom life rolls along not without hiccups, but with a healthy, lighthearted attitude.

Lindsey said...

haha!!!! Our "Invisible Fence" was a WASTE of money. After about 4 months our dog realized if he ran really fast thru it, it would only hurt for a few seconds. Now the people down the street have a part time dog, lol, thankfully we live out in the sticks, and thankfully the people actually love him to pieces. He apparently is at their house every morning at 9am and is home everyday at 6pm. Our other dog, always stays put and NEVER leaves. AND I totally agree with Kari M, you are awesome!

Amadajo said...

Thank you for giving me a laugh today. I needed that! We have lots of neighborhood cats and dogs. There's a dog up the street that looks remarkably like our dog, so sometimes we think it is our dog when it is, in fact, not ours, so we get two for the price of one on occasion.

Amy said...

Eh, I'd take the random dog over more children that aren't mine running around the house.

Charlie Pulsipher said...

Better than a skunk...trust me.

Eileen said...

too funny. at least its a friendly dog! and your kids can have a dog w/ out having a dog :)

Anonymous said...

Years ago, living in Southern California, the Santa Ana winds were blowing. During the night they blew our fence down, blew out several plastic patio windows and a good portion of shingles on this first house we had purchased the month before. We woke up to our dog and the neighbor's dog frolicking in our bedroom after they had gone through the garbage in the kitchen. We fixed everything but it was a shame to put the fence back up because they loved playing together all day. That was a lesson in home ownership. - Jennifer

Anonymous said...

My kids used to let the neighbor dog in our house all the time. Then he started thinking our front yard was his personal toilet. Now we can't get rid of him. I don't mind cleaning up after my own dog, but other dogs gross me out!

craftyashley said...

Our neighbors had a dog like that, she'd always escape and come to our house. At one point the neighbors just gave the dog to us- my parents were not sure about this as the most they'd let us have for pets were fish.

A million years later and my parents battled empty nest symdrome with acquiring four dogs. FOUR. It's a slippery slope indeed.

Ramona said...

oh lordy i hear you! Not with the kids, but with the dogs. My neighbor has two little dogs that bomb rush my house tag team style every chance they get! Takes me forever to get them both out and back to her safely (i feel i can't just throw on the street for some odd reason)

HOA Mgr Lady said...

what a great way to meet the neighbors. I imagine it was the 1st peace and quiet he got all day as well.

Anonymous said...

We let our nieghbor's dog in sometimes, but he usually doesn't stay long. Just comes in, looks around then goes. My cat likes him :)

Karen said...

Wow! You are so nice!!! I can't believe 3 hours???? I thought you were the mean mom??? Ha Ha

Sugar Bostick said...

Does your husband think you are the FUNNIEST person alive? I hope so b/c I don't even know you and you're in my top 5!

Chicken leg...classic!

Nelson's Mama said...

My neighbors two dogs come over every morning for breakfast (right around 7:00 A.M) and then come back for a bedtime snack.

Yeah...I'd take three hours any old day.

Unknown said...

We have one of those. We call him Lucky.

Anonymous said...

Just found your blog. Been reading for the past hour. Love it...

and if you make it feels any better, the neighborhood dogs LOVE our house too...

I just say screw it, toss them in the yard with our two, and hunt down their owners in a half hour or so after they've played.