The awful animals

    The other day workmen came here to dig in the front yard and leak lots of money from the house fix a leak outside the house. Alanis doesn't like anyone coming to the front door. She barks barks barks. When she draws  in breath through a tight throat for the next bark, she sounds like a maddened, snarling werewolf, a 150-lb menace instead of a 42-lb elderly, usually mild-mannered Airedale. Naturally, she sets off Miró's deep, resounding woofs. I have to step outside to hear anyone over the clamor, even if I've had enough advance warning to confine the dogs to crates.
   This time Alanis was in a soft-sided crate, bouncing it around the room; and Miro was behind a baby gate on the stairway landing. The workman politely tried to ignore the dogs as we shouted at each other in the doorway.
  "I'll need to see the main water shut-off," he said.
   "It's downstairs," I yelled. "I'll show you."
   He stepped in and eyed the tank where Matilda the snake was slithering around, awakened by the earthquake-like vibrations set off by the barking.
   "Is there a back door?" he shouted.
   "Yes, but then you'd have to pass by the parrots and they're even louder," I shouted back, thinking I looked even odder than the lady who lives with two dozen cats. Did I mention that my hair was dripping wet from the shower and I was barefoot, having just thrown on jeans and a sweatshirt? Workpeople are always early when you want them to be on time or late and late when you want them on time.

     You probably know that you should get up and move around at regular intervals when working at your computer. With the dogs and myself confined upstairs and Miró sitting on the stairs to guard the front window, I didn't have to remember to get up. Every time he saw so much as a shadow pass the blinds, Miró barked and I jumped like a jack-in-the-box. Very aerobic, if hard on the system.

At least I wasn't the one making all the noise. I was the smiling, gracious lady of the house. Surrounded by chaos. Isn't everyone?

And this was post #425!