zooey saves the day!

So, one of our pet peeves with Zooey (see what I did there? Pet peeves?) is her tendency to bark every morning around 5am because her little bladder is on the verge of exploding. I'm thankful for my saint of a husband, who gets up with her every morning, allowing me a precious 45 extra minutes of sleep!

This morning, true to character, Zooey started barking around 5:15. Doug mumbled something about "just want to sleeeeep" - so for some odd reason, I got up to let the dog out. On the rare occasions that I let Zoo out in the morning, I leave all the lights off, hoping she'll come back in, go in her cage and fall back asleep. So I stumbled, half asleep, through the kitchen to her cage and let her outside without turning on any lights.

This time, however, Zooey continued barking while she was peeing, which is not normal. So I was at the door, watching in confusion, when I saw a light through the window of our garage. At first I thought maybe it was a reflection of a car driving by, but then I realized, "No, that is an LED flashlight IN MY GARAGE." At the same time I had that realization, Zooey let out this absolutely ferocious growl that could freeze blood and started freaking out, barking viciously.

So I RAN back through the house and yelled up the stairs, "DOUG! THERE IS SOMEONE IN OUR GARAGE!" Then I ran back to the door, at which point I saw a MAN WALK OUT OF OUR GARAGE with Doug's golf clubs over his shoulder! So I screamed, "HEY!" - and the guy started running, then I heard him drop the golf clubs, presumably to move faster.

Right after I screamed at the guy, Doug ran downstairs and out the door, yelling after the guy... barefoot, in his boxers with a baseball bat. AWESOME.

Long story short - dude got away. We're assuming he parked around the corner and took off. The cops came (after Doug was clothed...) & everything, but not much they could do since he hadn't taken anything and was gone.

So pretty much, Zooey is a hero and I won't be complaining about her bark anytime soon. AND now I have a really good excuse for why Doug needs to be the one to get up with her in the mornings! Score.

Also, for your enjoyment:

Doug's bare footprint.