Our adventures in dog-sitting

We took care of "Skippy" for a weekend while his owners were out of town. The first night, Skippy ran away. David woke up in the middle of the night to a loud scraping sound. Upon investigating, he discovered it was the sound of the kids' scooter being dragged up the street by a runaway-Skippy. We had attached his leash to the scooter after being assured by his owners that he would stay put in the backyard if his leash were attached to something. David searched the neighborhood for over an hour, praying that he would find our friends' dog. In the middle of the night, it seemed a horrific thought that Skippy might not return. We couldn't imagine how awful it would be to tell our friends that we had lost their beloved pet. However, at 4:30 a.m., when David and Todd began the paper route, Todd saw that Skippy had returned to our cul-de-sac! We wonder where he went in such a hurry and so suddenly in the middle of the night. Maybe he ran home, saw that his owners weren't there, then decided to return. Or maybe something scared him and he decided to run away. (If only Skippy could talk!). We will never know where his adventures took him that night, but we're so thankful Skippy found his way back to our house. Needless to say, the next night, we made him a bed in the garage!
Which leads us to the next adventure in dog-sitting. . .

The weather was very hot, so we decided to leave the garage door open a bit. When David and Todd went into the garage the next morning to do the paper route, they couldn't believe what they saw -- a SKUNK!!! He was eating Skippy's dog food, while Skippy just sat there, watching him, completely composed. The skunk turned to look at David and Todd, then went right on eating the dog food. David thought quickly, then acted on his brave, but risky, plan to rid our garage of the skunk. He grabbed his air soft gun and slid into the van, which was parked in the garage. He opened the window a little bit and shot at the skunk, who again turned and looked, then went right on eating. After a few more shots, the skunk finally decided the dog food wasn't worth it anymore and he slowly left the garage. Crazy!!! We were so relieved that the skunk didn't spray. That could have really been a disaster.