It was a perfect night for a terrier.
The air was filled with...with the sound of college students partying en masse! No, really--they were--it was terribly loud and about 11pm. When all of a sudden my very good terrier nose smelled a rat! Well, kind of a rat--a really large mammal with a rat-like tail. I am not sure of their names but I have tasted them before. I think Mom calls them "possums." I don't know if that is correct but when you mouth them they lay there nice and still and it's so much fun.
Anyway, I am getting distracted from the story...so I smelled the opossum and I began looking for it. I looked up and there...before my very eyes---up on the cable between the houses in the back yard was a very large female! She was perched on the cables and that was the sign to alert my parents! So, I started barking---madly! But nothing happened.
Then, my mom opens the bathroom window and calls me and I call back--"there is a rodent almost in our yard!" and I keep telling everyone in the neighborhood. Mom knows my "critter in the yard" bark really well. Dad comes out (I guess Mom sent him) and goes back in thinking I am just barking at all the college student noise.
So, yea! I have more time to bark and convince it to come down and play! A few minutes later Mom comes out and then she looks up...sees my prize and goes back in the house. A couple of minutes later, she and Dad come out with a flashlight. I think "cool! They are going to help me!" Hasten has now learned to bark at these creatures too so she is helping and jumping almost as high as our board fence---I keep thinking maybe she could jump high enough to knock it down for us.
Well, then the party poopers (also called parents) come and shine the light on the creature and it doesn't move. Then they make us both go inside and then the worst thing happened...they locked our dog door! I KNOW!!--an outrage!!! Our connection to nature--the portal to my very essence of happiness... is sealed shut!
I parked near the door and waited patiently and about 20 minutes later mom goes back outside with the flashlight and won't let Hasten and I out with her. She comes back in and tells Dad something and they go back outside. I looked out the window--and they found that the creature had not moved---not an inch!!! They picked up a really large limb and were trying to scoot it across the power lines. She finally did walk slowly down the line and eventually they were able to convince her to jump down on a tree limb and escape to the neighbors' yard.
It wasn't until then that Hasten and I were allowed to go back outside. I hunted for her for hours. I sniffed and sniffed and paced the fence line...but alas, my dear readers...no possum. How very disappointing. It was a sad ending to a fabulous evening.
So folks, it just goes to show you that parents ruin everything! Humans intrude and then us terriers don't get to mouth possums!
Sad, possum-less and reluctant agilty dog,
Barclay
