Watchdogs

Jake got a phone call from one of our neighbors a couple weeks ago, telling us that Zuka and Akiva were barking in the evening while we were out. Consistently, loudly barking for long periods of time. Well, of course we felt awful. They never bark much while we’re home, so we had no idea. And we immediately started looking for ways to make it right. I mean, we didn’t want to be those neighbors. Yeah, you know the ones I’m talking about. The ones that don’t take care of their yard and play awful loud music and let their dogs bark and poop in your yard but then bring you a plate of cookies at Christmas and think everything is peachy. No one likes those neighbors. (Not that we’ve done any of those other things….)

So we went to work. We took them to the park to play and tire them out right before we left. We gave them big bones to chew on. We bought bark collars. And then we bought more bark collars when the ones we got before weren’t strong enough for Zuka. We exhausted all of the options we could think of until we basically came to the conclusion that we’d simply have to kennel them whenever we left them, which made me very sad.

Then suddenly we had a breakthrough. Jake called one of our other neighbors to apologize for the barking, and he told Jake it was ok because he knew the source. He knew why they were barking. Which was great because it meant they weren’t just randomly barking while we were gone, like we thought. It meant something was provoking them (or at least giving reasonable cause in their doggie heads). It also meant that they might stop, depending on whatever it was that made them bark.

It was two porcupines. Mating. Under that neighbor’s house.

You read that correctly. PORCUPINES. MATING. Apparently they make this weird screaming noise when they mate, and every time the pups heard it, it set them off. (I still laugh thinking about it. Like, I’m laughing right now. Literally. What a bizarre situation.) Fortunately, porcupine mating season seems to be over now, and the barking along with it. So we don’t have to kennel the them when we leave, and all is right with the world.

But you want to know the best part of this story? No porcupines will ever be mating under MY house. Not with these goofy watchdogs around : )