killer comes to tea

There was a tiny black Chihuahua looking at me. He had been hanging around the yard all morning, never venturing far. Once the Bean went down for her nap, he settled in on the front porch, peering in at me through the front door, melting my heart and tempting me to break two house rules:

1) No stray animals in the house.

2) If you have to break rule number 1, then definitely no naming said animal.

You see, we have this back room with it's own entrance and a great dutch door (top and bottom swing separately) between it and the dining room, so I could keep an eye on him while I called animal control without him either running into the street or terrorizing the whole house. And I just couldn't let him run into the street - he looked like a family dog. So rule #1 went out the window.

In he came. I took my usual spot at the dining room table for nap time tea and he helped himself to my husband's desk chair in the back room so he could see me over the dutch door. After ten minutes of quiet companionship, it felt rude to just sit there ignoring him, so of course I had to talk to him. And of course he listened politely and attentively. And you just can't chat with someone over tea without knowing his name, so of course rule #2 went out the window. Killer joined me for tea.

An hour into our time together, I needed to check on the meatballs in the oven, so I excused myself to the kitchen and got caught up in some project or another. It wasn't long before my mommy intuition told me it was too quiet. I ran to the dutch door, certain I would find the room torn to shreds.

But no. My polite guest had just found the warmest, snuggliest spot to grab a quick afternoon nap. What a darling. When animal control arrived shortly thereafter, I was thrilled to hear that someone had already called looking for a small, black Chihuahua. Killer went along with the officer without a fuss, hopefully on his way back home, and I got the company of a fine gentleman for tea. An excellent afternoon, indeed.

Now how to explain the doggy hair on the computer to Brad without giving away the broken rules....