I’m not stealthy, so I will never be a cat burglar.

With that cleared up, I’ll tell you a story.  We have some friends nearby who are in that special friend category where you’ve lost count of who cooked dinner for whom the most (or brought drinks or took care of the other people’s dog, etc.).  It’s pretty nice when you get there with friends.  I don’t even have to tidy up before they come over.  Ooh, aah!

Long explanation short, we’re dog-sitting for Spot for a few days, which is always fun.  He and Peanut get along really well, and he’s generally a great dog to have around.

In addition to a lovely personality, Spot possesses a dog door.  Or his house possesses a dog door, so he didn’t need a dog-sitter until this morning.  I went over after hitting up the post office, as planned.  But the situation got a tad bit complicated when I saw a car in the driveway.  [Dramatic music starts playing in the background.]  That’s right, there’s a roommate home at the casa de friends.

I’ve met this roommate several times, and I know he would recognize my face if we ran into each other.  I’m not entirely sure he knows my name, however.  We’re definitely not the type of friends who can sneak into each other’s houses and steal each other’s dogs for a few days.

Despite the car situation, I try opening the front door to retrieve Spot.  No luck.  I try the other doors with the same result.  Then I take the next responsible step and ring the doorbell.  I feel sheepish about that option, because I know a few things about this guy’s sleep habits, and there’s a good chance that he’s still asleep.

No answer.  Well, no human answer.  Spot barks at the door a few times.  Too bad he doesn’t have opposable thumbs.

Then I resort to the awkward option.  I crawl through the doggie door in the laundry room.  I wouldn’t normally feel weird about that if I needed to get into this particular house, but the roommate thinks he’s on his own at the house for a few days.  I would never crawl through the doggie door of a random college student’s house.  Never.  So what if I get inside and he’s playing video games on the couch of his own house, wondering how I got into said locked house when he purposefully didn’t answer the door?!

Fortunately, there’s no sight of any variety of roommate–sleeping or awake.  Spot looks glad to see me, and we get out of there with a huge sigh of relief (Spot because he doesn’t like to be alone and prefers to be not alone with an awake person, me because I escaped the house unnoticed).

I have my fingers crossed that the roommate won’t wake up and freak out that the dog is missing.  I might have forgotten to leave a note in my rush to leave.  I did accomplish my goal, however, as evidenced by the two happy dogs napping in my living room.