Nosy Neighbor Dog Wants To Come And Play

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.Show more

Who’s a good boy? Come on over, Rover! Rover looks like a school kid who’s been grounded. With that big, bony knucklehead sticking through the fence slat, we have to wonder if that hole was always that big, or did it start off as just a little peephole? Just a little bit more…just a little bit more…Eventually, we suspect one of the homeowners will have to do some fence repair, to the chagrin of Rover.

Don’t look now, but there’s also some digging going on under the fence. Sure, it’s nothing new, and Rover can blame it on the neighborhood cat. But he’s going to have a hard time digging himself out of trouble once he makes a hole big enough to crawl under the fence. The long-range forecast? There’s a storm a-brewin’!

Something fun is happening on this side of the fence, though we don’t know what it is. Whatever it is, this boy wants to be where the action is. We don’t accuse his owner of being a fuddy-duddy. Maybe his owners are out for the afternoon? Some possibilities include a picnic, playing with water, kids, or another dog.

Dog nature varies widely, but if there is one thing we can say about a dog it’s that it wants to have fun. It’s like some kind of law of physics, where objects in motion tend to stay in motion, like water seeking its own level, and dogs seek to move from a state of inertia to a state of fun.

Consider: You’ve got about one seventh the life expectancy of your human family. There’s not a lot of time to waste lounging around in this guy’s backyard when I could be living it up over there.

We don’t know what kind of relationship the people on this side have with the dog on that side, but we suspect it’s pretty good. You don’t calmly stand there with a camera video recording your neighbor’s dog trying to break into your backyard if you’re afraid of the dog. For that matter, your fence would be a little sturdier if you were afraid of it. That’s a fairly big dog, too. Just look at that massive noggin! He’s wagging his, tail, and that’s usually a good sign. He’s not making any mean faces, nor is he growling or barking.

It’s the weekend, the day is balmy, and we’ve got some sausages on the grill. So come on over, old boy. You’re always welcome at our place. We can figure out the fence later. We can see you’re not really taking “no” for an answer. You never bothered to return the RSVP that we didn’t send you, anyway. We didn’t build the fence with a doggy door to make it easy for you, but then, we didn’t count on you joining the Miller family next door. You’re kind of like Dennis the Menace, that unknown, but not undesired, quantum of chaos in our suburban lives.