Open Door

Joe and I like to think of ourselves as hospitable.  The kind of people who have an open door policy.  Come right in, make yourself at home, no one is a guest.   My kids have an open door policy too, which, as it turns out, is also rather inviting.

One Sunny afternoon during our last week in Bismarck while I was lounging (this is what I do during a move, lounge) on the only piece of furniture left in the house that one could sit on, I heard a dog barking.  This is not an uncommon daytime noise in a neighborhood filled with families that own dogs.  It is, however, uncommon for that sound to be so near that it appears to have come from within the house.  The nearness of the noise drove me to investigate.  I hoisted myself from the bed (no small task at 8 months pregnant) to investigate and called to Xandra who was reading in her room.  She met me in the kitchen/dining area where we observed a little white dog trotting about the empty space.  As all normal people would do, I scrambled for my camera, while laughing wildly.  How did a dog get into our house? I neglected to get a picture of him before he scooted out the wide open garage door (now I see).  While I missed him in the house, I did catch a picture of him in the yard,

 

pooping,

before he trotted off down the street toward home.

Or toward another house where the children leave the doors (all of them:  garage, front and back, all at once) standing wide open when they go outside to play.