"The Lock-Out"
A pet is definitely a member of the family! Our first dog was a Labrador/dalmatian mix. What is that? A labramation; a dalmador; a labdal? Whatever you call him, he was a quick study. Whatever you taught him, he learned it well! His name was Jose, his coat was a shiny black, a white chest and socks with some black freckles on his paws. One day we were all outside in the backyard while Jose was napping indoors. I don't know who the culprit was but one of the kids locked the door on their way out. When we were ready to go back in, we realized all the doors were locked. We didn't have a hidden key anywhere as a back-up plan, so we started freaking out. One of the kids said, "Jose's inside he can open the door". Really? Well, I was so desperate that I thought why not? We started banging on the door and calling Jose. We watched, with our faces pressed on the glass, as he came frolicking to the door. Oh boy, a new game! We kept yelling "hit the latch Jose, hit the latch!". He looked at us as if we were nuts, why would we tell him to do that? It would mean that he'd have to jump on the door - was that suddenly allowed? He just looked at us with his tail wagging at great velocity. We yelled and yelled and at some point, he decided we were serious. He started pawing the latch until it gave, and we all rushed in the door at once. He was lavished with hugs and treats and boy were we relieved to get out of the heat!