Photo by Angela Kirk

Now don’t get me wrong, I love my job as a therapy dog, but it’s always nice to head home at the end of the day, unless something unsettling awaits you. Last week as Doc and I were driving down the street, we approached the house and nothing seemed out of the ordinary until we were ready to pull into the driveway. That is when I heard Doc say in a worried voice ” Oh no.” As I followed her gaze, I noticed what she saw and my heart dropped. The double front doors were wide open.

She pulled into the garage and we both got out of the car. I know her brain was on overdrive and I could sense that her anxiety was kicking into fear. I took the lead as we approached the front door together. It had snowed while we were at work and as we went up the front steps, we did not see any footprints. As we slowly stepped in the front door and peered into the house, it didn’t look like anything was out-of-order or stolen. Pausing, I didn’t hear anyone in the house, but I thought to myself, this is the part in the movies where the audience is yelling at the actors, ” Don’t go into the house, Freddy Krueger is hiding behind the door!” Doc must have been thinking the same thing because much to my relief, she got on her phone and dialed 911.

“911, what’s your emergency?” the dispatcher asked. When Doc told her what was going on, the dispatcher told her to that we both needed to get back in the car and lock the doors until the  police arrived. That nice lady stayed on the phone with Doc to make sure we were ok. She then instructed Doc that if someone comes out of her house and approaches her, lay low. Doc told the dispatcher that if that happens she will run them over with her car. That’s my Doc! The dispatcher burst out laughing, but advised her that she did not instruct her to do that.

Three police cars pulled up to the house within 2 minutes of the call, and told us to stay in place in case they flushed out a perpetrator. As two of them searched the house, one of them went in the back yard. After what seemed to be forever, they told Doc that we could come inside. They had not found anyone, but they wanted Doc and I to go through the house to see if anything was out-of-place.

Being promoted from therapy dog to crime dog in one day, was almost too much for me to handle, but I rose to the occasion. Luckily after going through the house, everything looked fine.

The police examined the front doors and determined that there was no forced entry.  That was when Doc remembered that she had furniture delivered a few weeks ago, and thinks that maybe she had not bolted the one double door back into the frame. Since we had some high winds on that snowy day, it was determined that the wind blew the doors wide open. What a relief.

After Doc thanked the police and we both settled down, we realized the next morning that not one neighbor on our quiet street came out to see what was wrong, even though many of them were home. It makes you wonder how three police cars can come in broad daylight, search a house and yard and no one notices.