Unintentional "Out-of-crate" experiment...

[billsharp]

We went out of town last weekend for one night and had our neighbors care for Liesl. They fed her at 6p as we always do, then crated her inside at 9 p.m.

What they didn't know was that the other door to the kennel was closed but not latched.

When they showed up the next morning to let her out, my neighbor opened the front door and was surprised to find Liesl sitting there staring at him. After a quick discussion with his wife they realized what had happened. They surveyed the house and found that she had gone looking for mom and dad, pulling our dirty clothes out of the upstairs closet bin and distributing them liberally around the house (but not chewing or tearing them). She investigated several pairs of shoes (again not destroying any of them) and chewed only part of the laces off of a pair of desert boots. She did chew up one of my son's old ball caps.

Otherwise, however, no damage. No ripped couch, no torn pillows, no gnawed wooden tables, no shredded curtains, no doggie dropping gifts anywhere.

We were very lucky, and proud of our 10 month old's restraint in what had to be major temptation on her first night unattended with run of the house.

Lesson learned: always wash or at least hide your unmentionables before you leave town.