Big Doings Next Door

When Mom moved into our house, she put up a big fence all the way around our backyard, so I could play back there safely. One day, when I was still a baby, we got really nice new neighbors, and they didn't have any children or any dogs. One day, a black labrador retriever puppy the same age as me got abandoned in our neighborhood, and our new neighbors adopted him and named him CB. We became really good friends, and liked to play all the time. We were inseparable.

CB's yard only had a 3-foot fence around it, and CB knew how to jump over it, and how to dig under it, and he always would come straight to my gate and try to get it, but he couldn't. So then he would go to my front door, and if my Mom saw him, she would let him in, and send us both to my back yard, and we would play until CB's Mom and Dad came to get him.

CB's Dad and my Mom finally came up with the idea to make a hole in the fence between our 2 yards, and then CB and I could just visit each other's yards. They hoped that this way, he might not be running around in the street! And it worked pretty good, too. But CB moved away a few years ago, and I miss him. We kept the hole in the fence, though, but boarded off the bottom part of it. Other dogs have moved in, but they are too small to come visit my yard, so I just talk to them through the fence!

But now, there is something very important going on next door! Mom doesn't understand how important it is! I have told her and told her, and I tell her a hundred times a day, but she doesn't understand, so now I am telling the whole world, so if you see my Mom, please try to explain it to her.

The house next door has been empty for about 3 months. Suddenly, last week, the local sanitation company dropped off one of those industrial sized dumpsters in the driveway of that house, and ever since, there has been a whole lot of stuff going on over there. I have been keeping an eye on everything, and barking up a storm, until Mom makes me come inside.

The workman have torn out all the azaleas, and are doing a lot of landscaping, with loud stuff like chainsaws and leafblowers. I hate loud noise like that, so I bark at them. They pressure washed the deck and treated it, so I had to tell Mom about that, too.

When Mom is home, I ask her to let me out about 100 times a day, so I can check on all this stuff. Believe me, I am keeping a close eye on this! When I get carried away barking, Mom makes me come in. After a few minutes, I start bugging her to let me out again. She sits on the edge of the bed when she does stuff, and I know how to get my way: I whine and I lick her left hand over and over. She hates that.

I wonder if we are getting new neighbors? I hope they have a dog!