Howdy Neighbor

This is Trooper:

Trooper lives a few doors down the street from us and today is but the latest of several occasions (probably many more than I’m aware of) where he’s gotten out of his seemingly not-very-closed sideyard enclosure to slip past the driveway gate of his building while it’s opening or closing and go roaming around the block, where he’s wound up wandering around our house.

The trouble is Trooper, while a very friendly animal, is pretty timid around people he doesn’t know and so the moment he sees me he usually heads off back for home with me in pursuit to make sure he’s secured there.

The last couple times this has happened has been on the weekends where a neighbor of Trooper’s guardian has been kind enough to take him from me. This time, nobody’s home, but after standing around outside his place trying/hoping to figure out a way to get Trooper inside — unsuccessfully — I guess it helped that I remembered the dog’s name because the he was finally comfortable enough with my presence not only to allow me to pet him for the first time, but also to follow me back home and into the backyard where he gulped a lotta water and pretended to want the dog biscuit I gave him while I called the number on his collar and left a message that their dog is safe.

Ranger is a little put out by the intrusion and Jiggy and Pumpkin are nowhere to be seen.

UPDATED (5:45 p.m.): Trooper’s back safe and sound with his peeps who just got my message and came by to pick him up.