"I Ain't No Killa"

Set the Scene: 10 p.m. Wednesday night, Adam is out of town, I let the dogs out... Charlie peed and came inside.

And ACTION!!!

Lucas took off and went straight to the back of the yard and barked and barked and barked. I look out and he is attacking an animal a bit larger that Charlie. It was horrible. Fear ran thru me in an instant. I have been fearing this since the day we moved in as our backyard backs up to a field and is not well lit. Lucas saw this creature before I even had the chance too. So here I am screaming at him to come in. He just kept barking and pushing this animal with his nose. And then the animal would hiss back. And then he would push it with his nose again. I ruled out skunk. THANK GOD. I got outside closer. It looked like an oversized rat or hedge hog. Hard to tell in dark.

I tried ringing the doorbell to get Luke to come in, tried saying "Adam's home!", tried offering treats, banging pots and pans.... NOTHING to hold the attention of my 1 year old pup. This went on for like 1/2 a hour. Me screaming obscenities in the middle of the night, and out of ideas.

Finally my neighbor Scott comes out, and goes "what's he barking at?" I say I don't know.... I described to Scott what I thought it might be. I told him Adam was out of town and he asked me if I wanted him to come over, letting me know if it's a rat he was going to kill it. "Oh dear, do what you gotta do!" I say. So Scott comes over. With a PITCHFORK. And gets closer than I ever would. Lucas is STILLLLLL barking and now Scott and I are trying to catch Lucas, while this animal is scared out of it's mind. Lucas thinks this is hilarious and has turned this into a cat and mouse game. FINALLY I catch my trouble maker dog. And Scott gets closer to the animal. We now think its a hedge hog or possum, but are still debating. He pushes it with the pitchfork. (Not the sharp part!) And he thinks it might be pregnant, I ask "how do you know" as everything turns into an educational lesson with me. He says "the stomach is poofy, and if you think about it, this animal didn't really fight back." He nipped Lucas, but it did not hurt Lucas, you could tell. So anyways, he then says "do you want me to kill it?".... and I say "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO."

After me apologizing profusely and offering beer and baked goods to my neighbor, he says "NO NEED.... call anytime." At this point I am in tears... and I go... "I dont even know your number!" And wait for it.............. the kicker of the story..... he pulls out his business card!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here I am all weepy over my dog getting in his first real fight, and he hands me a business card! It definitely made me laugh. And you better believe I am filing it away!!

Lucas is okay. He didn't have any scratches on his nose or anything, I had debated taking him to the vet, but he was acting normally the whole next day. He just wanted to make a new friend. I'm not quite sure that he did though.