Comedy of errors.....

We don't like putting our animals in the kennel when we go on vacation, so we switch out babysitting duties with several of our neighbors.
I take care of 3 German Shepherds across the street, I watch someone else's cat....and a couple dogs next door (sometimes).... I also watch Gage.

This is Gage.



Gage doesn't look like the kind of dog you want to mess with, does he? And this guy is 13 YEARS OLD. Could you imagine him in his prime?



Gage looks tough.

Gage IS tough.

Gage also loves me. I think. I'm not 100% sure but I fake it so he doesn't know I'm NOT 100% sure. Anyway, it seems to work because he is always happy to see me and loves all over me.

So, here is what happened Friday night...this drama lasted 20 looooong minutes.

I go to check on Gage for the last time at 9:30ish. His owners put up some little curtains to cover the little sidelights on their door. But they drag on the floor. (They only put them up when they go out of town.)

I come walking in, one of the curtains gets caught under the door as I step over the threshold, catching my ankle.
I go down but not all the way, just close enough for Gage to think HOW WONDERFUL! SHE IS GOING TO KISS ME ON THE MOUTH!

So, between the curtain and the falling and Gage wanting to kiss me, I didn't make it to the alarm pad in time to turn off the system.
Almost...but as I reached out to 'touch' the key pad, there went the alarm!

So I go turn it off.
I hit the 'clear' key but it doesn't turn off because it was the wrong key.....which locked the system and wouldn't let me turn it off.
So each time I hit the clear key, the alarm would ratchet up the sound letting the ENTIRE world know that SOMEONE SET OFF THE ALARM!

About this time, Gage starts getting irritated and growls a bit and then starts barking.
He doesn't like the alarm SHRIEKING its bloody guts out anymore than I do.
Now I try putting the code back in and it wouldn't work EITHER! So like an idiot, I just stand there and keep entering the 'off' code over and over again....but gee whiz, it still won't turn it off....hmm.......I actually stood there and scratched my head like a monkey.

I start to get worried because Gage is REALLY getting agitated and I think he is getting a bit too tense for the situation because he starts sort of spinning around in front of me like he is chasing his tail....but doing it over and over and over again.
So I try to take him to the back door.
But he won't go. Instead he continues to bark and chase his tail. I stand there like an idiot looking at Gage doing his little thing and am thinking that surely the cops will come and drag me off because even the DOG is barking STRANGER DANGER....(even though, right now, the dog looks nuts.)

I try entering the code again and this time, the alarm starts a new higher pitched cycle of shrieking and whooping and I can't take it anymore so I go outside without Gage...but with him chasing me to the door and barking.
It didn't do any good going outside because you can hear the alarm from OUTSIDE TOO. So I go back in. Gage is still barking and now he jumping up and down in front of me.

About this time, I remember that I DON'T REMEMBER the 'secret' word. You know, THAT WORD you need to remember when you are babysitting someone's house so if the alarm goes OFF you can let the alarm people know that you are okay. An idiot, but okay...not a bad guy.
Gage is still barking..and now he is running in circles around me.

I decide to go BACK outside because I can't think straight and Gage has gone 'over the edge.'
This time, he goes with me but won't stop barking and now he is sort of jumping up and down in front of me combined with the running in circles.
I didn't think pits were that flexible.
He looks like a circus monkey.
If I hadn't been so stressed, I would have REALLY enjoyed the show he was putting on for me.

I call the owner a couple times from my cell but she doesn't answer (she IS on vacation after all!) so I call my husband (why?).
It has going on so long now that I am thinking, dang....noone has shown up to arrest me....maybe I'll just GO HOME. yeah....I actually thought about it! HA!

Instead, I decide to go back in and give it another go...first, I say a little prayer and enter the code AND........

it lets me turn it off this time.


Even better is that as soon as the alarm shut up, Gage did too!
Gage simply stops barking, wags his tail and starts eating his dinner....which is good because for a while there I thought was going to eat me.

Then I had an interesting thought.......
You know, one of those random thoughts that makes you realize the REASON you aren't a rocket scientist. Yeah, one of THOSE THOUGHTS. .......

I realized that while I was panicking, I was putting in the WRONG CODE THE ENTIRE TIME. In my panic, I kept putting in the 'on' code instead of the 'off' code.

I am such a moron.......


So after all this hysteria, the the owner calls me back and then the alarm company calls her so she hangs up.... and then she calls me back again.
Then she hangs up and calls the sheriffs office because they had already dispatched someone to come take me away to jail.

Then she calls me back again to follow up with me and I told her about Gage.

She burst out laughing and told me that he gets a 'little crazy' when the alarm goes off.

A little crazy? I would hate to see it when he goes A LOT crazy! yikes.....