Another Story

After several weeks of rehearsals and about 2/3 of our performances were under our belts, Abby started to improvise. At one point in the play, a police officer is scolding Annie and a group of people who have been living under a bridge. At this time, Annie has caught Sandy and is holding her on a rope. So the police officer scolds the people and Annie talks back and while the officer is disbursing the ruffians he realizes that Annie is the runaway from the orphanage and takes her into custody (Sandy gets loose and lost in the scuffle). That sets the scene. So at one of the afternoon performances (we were doing two or three every weekend), we get to this scene and when the police officer starts scolding the group - Abby starts barking back at him. She had never done this before. She barked right back at him like, "Don't you yell at Annie!!" She almost drowned him out. The actors just played along and the crowd loved it, of course, and we just chuckled and shook our heads, "That's our Abby." She proceeded to do this at ALL of the remaining performances.

Even funnier was that backstage she would sidle up to the man playing the police officer (a really nice guy who liked her a lot) and she would wag her tail at him and ask for pets. I always interpreted that as her saying, "I was only ACTING out there. I really like you!"

That crazy Abby...

Escape!!

So I opened the door this morning to let Jasper back in (he likes to go outside with the dogs in the morning and often stays out a little while) and I feel something brush my leg. It was Abby shooting past me out the door at a dead run. What the heck? I see her streak across the yard towards...a squirrel. She chased it across the driveway and up a tree and then frantically jumped at the base of the tree and barked at it. The impunity!! How dare that *(&^^*&^ squirrel!! She then decided to look for other quarry and was not particularly willing to be persuaded back into the house (no collar on, obviously no leash). After a few minutes, she had had her fun and somewhat grudgingly followed me inside. It used to be traumatic when she escaped the house, but this was sort of amusing and refreshing. On other occasions she would head for the hills and the resulting search could take up to 15 minutes or so. Much of that time was spent watching her careening from yard to yard, back and forth across Silsby or Tullamore or Meadowbrook. Heart stopping, to be sure, but she was having the time of her life.

One time there were about four people tailing her to keep her in sight and prevent her from making it out to Lee Rd., while subtley herding her back toward the house. All of a sudden she runs right across the road in front of a police cruiser stopped at the intersection of Silsby and Meadowbrook. Oh crap! Now she's going to jail and we'll get a ticket and.... The officer turns his car to follow her (east on Silsby, right in front of our house) and then he stops the car and...opens his door. Abby runs right over to say, "Hello" and he pets her and takes hold of her collar. We ran up panting and he handed her over with a smile and went on his way.

Just another day in the life of Abby...