...is that when we went and visited Riley and his new little sister Bonnie, there was a little bit of an incident...
Our first night at the house was deprived of sleep for everyone involved.
First of all, us Airedales sleep inside. We're not dogs, we like it warm and comfy and like to rest in close proximity to our pinkies (if not on the big bed right next to them).
While the pinkies settled in for the night down the corridor with all the bedrooms, we (Riley, Bonnie, Inky and myself) set up Camp Dale for the night in the main living area.
So here are the events of that night as follows:
It was Bonnie's first night ever with her new family, so the poor little lass had some crying to do. And if you ever heard a puppy cry at night, you know what I am talking about.
Our hosts have a beautiful house, with lots of glass surrounding it. So, on the inside you can watch all sorts of great wildlife zooming past during the wee hours (of course we all had our night goggles on). Terrific! We barked at EVERYTHING!
No hang on, I did more howling than barking while Riley definitely had some barking to do.
I should mention here that our hosts also have two delicious, ahem, beautiful cats.
Although they had to camp part of the night outside, towards sunrise, they were ready to come back in again. And boy, were we (Inky and myself) ready for them!!
By this stage, the pinkies issued many "shooshes" and "in your beds" and complained about a lack of sleep (I did say to them, that they should have stayed and bed and that I, the mighty Moll, would take care of it all). The cats were brought to safety in our hosts bedroom...
Inky didn't not want to give up carrying on about the cats and Mother Dearest truly had enough by then. She was highly embarrassed by our performance (why??) so she thought to separate us was wise and Inky was hurled into our pinkies' bedroom to be "muted". I was left with Riley to guard over little Bon Bon in her crate. The door to the corridor with all the bedrooms was locked firmly.
A short while after, Inky felt the urge to scratch at Pinkies' bedroom door (now on the inside). Poor pinkie thought that Inky needed to urinate and was going to escort her out.
The next few seconds are just a blur but what happened went a little bit like this:
Inky and Pinkie try to get past the firmly locked corridor door (not possible), the scuffle attracts my and Riley's attention (on the other side of that door), which then in turn attracts the attention of our host, who helps open the corridor door but leaves their bedroom door open only to see Riley zoom down the corridor to say hi to his Pinkie, Inky and myself decide to follow suit and HOORAY find the cats in our hosts' bedroom...
One of the cats decides to flee, Inky decides to chase, I follow Inky because it seemed like so much fun..
Cat heads down the corridor toward the main living area, we follow. About half way, our pinkie tries to stop us both but only manages to grab hold of me....
Two seconds later, the biggest smash bang you could ever imagine!! Our pinkie thought the worst (the glass display cupboard with all family heirlooms had come down to kill both, cat and Inky, and all heirlooms, but no...
As the clock strikes 5.50am the pinkies (all six of them) gather to find a puzzled looking Inky, a broken window, but no cat!
Inspector Molly was called upon but even I couldn't work out if Inky went through the window first and then the cat escaped, or if the cat jumped through the window and broke the window in doing so. And Inky simply wouldn't tell (she can be sooo difficult).
There was no blood at the scene which seemed like some relieve but the cat did not return for several hours which had our pinkie crying and feeling embarrassed, scared, guilty, anxious, helpless...
Let's just say, we feel very lucky that Riley's family still speaks to us, had us stay another night (for which we were all locked up, away from any big glass panes) and even agreed to have me stay for an extended holiday in a couple of months' time for while the pinkies will be overseas (little Inks will be housed elsewhere and I promised to be on my best behaviour in regard to the Kitty Kat)...
MOLLY
