Up On The Roof

Skater and his litter mates were about three months old, a beautiful, boisterous and happy little tribe of typically trouble making German Shepherd pups. It was Saturday and I needed to leave my mountain and go run some mundane errands. Andy was home and said he would spend some time with the puppies outside. My only warning to him before I left was, "If you're going to fall asleep, please be sure to put them back in their kennel first."

You have to understand the way our property was laid out in order to appreciate what happened that day. Because we lived 9/10 of the way up a very craggy mountain, out property was actually on three levels and, of course, perimeter fenced. On the first level was the driveway and the carport; the carport had been converted into a 20X30 puppy kennel and had a full roof over it. From the carport, you could walk up a few steps which brought you to a patio and the level of the bedrooms in the house. Now, if you walked from the driveway to the front door, you had to climb a small flight of stone steps; then you were level with the main part of the house and the front yard. From the front yard, there were two different full flights of stone steps up to the kennel area which was actually level with the roof on that side of the house. The roof, incidentally, extended over a narrow side yard which brought its edges to within a couple of feet of the kennel level. Make sense? Good.

I went on my merry way into town and it took about two hours to do what I needed. The road to our house was a one lane, barely paved little mountain road. As we had a 6 foot high chain link gate across the driveway, I normally turned toward it and parked to unlock it. Not this time. Imagine my surprise when I drove up to the gate, looked up and saw all five of my puppies UP ON THE ROOF!!! All tails were wagging, all faces sported huge grins and my dear husband was sound asleep on his chaise on the lawn. Skater was standing at the peak of the roof, facing the front. If he jumped, it was an approximately 15 foot drop to cement. If the pups ran to the right side of the house and jumped, it was an approximately 30 foot drop. The only semi-safe way off was, obviously, the same way they got on the roof to begin with ... from the side near the kennels and they still had to clear that two foot gap, ten feet above cement.

I knew that if I got our of the car, they would want to come toward me; couldn't risk that. I also knew that if I yelled loud enough to wake my husband, it still might make them come toward me and couldn't risk that either. So...up on my mountain, in the wonderful quiet that had drawn me there to begin with, I leaned on my horn for all it was worth. It took a couple of minutes but Andy finally raised his head. I only dared use hand gestures to show him where his charges were. When he finally saw them, I could see the color drain from his face. After a serious, hand-gesture conversation, we had agreed that the only hope was for him to walk slowly up to the kennels, get on the roof and call the pups off, making sure that each one got down safely. Thankfully, it worked. I don't think I spoke to him anymore that weekend and he was permanently relieved from puppy babysitting duties - forever.

I will never forget Skater's beautiful, baby black and red face, smiling at me as if to say, "Welcome home, mom. Look at where I am!" Even then, tried as he might, he knew I would let no harm come to him.