Monday, April 13, 2009

Strike 2

I am quickly becoming the worst dog owner ever. We are again in New York, and Corbett's mother, sister, niece (Ally) and nephew (Dylan) are here. They got here Wednesday night, Dante and I got here Saturday night.

Most of Sunday was spent out in the city, having a good time despite the horrid winter weather that we are having here. We were going to do an Easter egg hunt, but we got there too late and all the eggs were gone (this returns to Dante, I promise). As such, we promised the kids they could have their own hunt in Corbett's apartment.

So in the evening, Corbett and his mom went to the store to get some things, while his sis, the kids, Dante, and I remained at home. Ally and Dylan were getting excited about "the hunt," so we put them in the bathroom and hid the eggs (Dante was diligently following us sniffing each egg, knowing there was chocolate inside). Of course, we realized that this was cruel, because we wanted to wait for C and his mom to return, so we told them they had to wait.* Luckily, this was for about three minutes, and Corbett and his mom got back, and will all the excitement, the next 30 minutes was a blur.

Minutes 0-2: Corbett and his mom enter with the groceries, Dante and the kids greet them, and we put the groceries away.

Minutes 2-10: Easter egg hunt! All the eggs are found, and happiness is enjoyed by all.

Minutes 10-25: Corbett's sister calls her husband while the mom takes a bath, and Corbett and I basically ignore the kids while they proceed to eat all of their candy.**

Minutes 25-30: Corbett creates a new game called "Strangler" (no energy to explain this), and we run around playing this game. When his sister goes out into the hall to hide from Dylan (who is the strangler at this point), something dawns on me; Dante isn't getting all caught up in the excitement.

In fact, as we quickly realized, Dante was not in the apartment, nor in the hallway. I run and grab my shoes and his leash and collar (I take his collar off inside the apartment, so while he has a microchip, he had no tags on him), and run downstairs. I found him on the third floor, sniffing through someone's garbage that was left out for the night (that's how we get rid of trash in this building, we leave it out at night for them to pick up in the morning). I called him and he immediately came back in.

What must have happened was he went outside to greet Corbett and his mom, and with all the commotion was left out there, only to wander off because we never opened the door to let him back in. One day he'll make it all the way out because apparently I just don't think about him anymore.

---
* Note, these kids are so ridiculously well behaved that they will just sit there, very little whining, and accept their lot in life. It's great when you want them to sit there and be quiet, or if they can't get what they want for whatever reason, but at the same times it is odd to see a 5- and 7-year old so mature.

** This is not relevant to this story, but it did make for a three-hour sugar rush pychotic period later in the evening, making me never more excited to go to bed.

by Topher at 11:19 AM |