February 12, 2020

White Dog looked up at Steve who was working at his desk in the office. "What the heck is going on out there?" she asked him. "Something does not seem right." He turned in his chair. "I have to go out and get something from the car," he told her. "I bring back a full report."

"Holy moly," he said coming back in almost instantly. "There are police cars blocking both sides of our block and police are everywhere. It is all happening right in front. They told me to get back inside, and lock the door."

That was all the White Dog Army needed to go into full alert. Ferocious faces filled every window and the war chant was begun. More police descended, including a SWAT team in full gear with very scary weapons.

"Please babies, I know you want everyone to know you are protecting our home but I do not want some pumped up lawman with nervous fingers to accidently shoot you." The helicopter now circling over the house guaranteed that the Army was not about to stand down...and when a command center with loudspeaker was set up at the end of our driveway, I was suddenly very grateful for the new reinforced window AND for my loud guardians. Surely whatever bad guy being hunted would not dare brave all these dogs.

But then the K9 Patrol showed up and HUGE serious looking dogs dragged their handler to our wall and began braying. Steve had the foresight to have gotten all of the WDA inside when he first saw the K9 van and he had shutdown the dog door. The squad came up our driveway and motioned for Steve (who was watching along with the Army) to come to the door. He came back inside to say they wanted access to the yard. "Fine," I said, "but they cannot come in. The dogs would go wild at that intrusion. Besides there is nothing here for them."

The White Dog Army was furious that our yard was invaded by a foreign pack and a bunch of strangers in uniforms. When the commotion reached a crescendo of baying, barking, shouting and ominous threats, we all moved closer together away from the windows. Steve peeked out of the front windows to see four officers escorting a handcuffed man down our drive. They were followed by the K9 team.

He went out back to make sure the gates were locked before lifting the doggie door lockdown and met one of the officers coming back through. The fugitive, it seems, had been hiding in our storage shed when the dogs sniffed him out. No details were given about the crime or clues or what led them to our yard. We had hoped the nightly news would tell us the back story but the incident which took more than two hours and major man and equipment power but it did not even make the news.

Amazingly it took only a few minutes from our neighborhood to return to its quiet mid-day "normal." All of the WDA investigated the yard while Steve dressed for work and by the time he was backing the van down the drive, all were settling into a post manhunt nap.