The Great Dakota Escape

Our great wonder (where she went) dog, the infamous Dakota Sue (yes, that was intentional), lived up to our rather low expectations of her once again. Wonder of wonders, she escaped from the house again. The kids seem to have forgotten that if she is in the side yard jumping up and down barking at something and not really caring too much about the potential of getting scratched by the barbed wire, that she will inevitably bolt at the first sign of a door-opening. Today's adventure would not have been quite so interesting except for the fact that the new hydrant up the street is giving us a small taste of Yellowstone. Two days now a lovely guyser has showered the air, wet the grass, run across the road (thankfully it's been above freezing), into our "dry" creek, and generally making a mess of things. I digress. You can imagine which way she decided to bolt...the muddy way. Did I mention our neighborhood has lots of dogs (and there is always the worry that she will mistake a small dog for a squirrel)? Dakota feels the need to visit all of them...today it was twice. She made the loop around her favorite yards, and we finally decided to drive the van around the block, because sometimes a car ride is more enticing. Apparently, she remembered that the last time we went to the vet. After round two, she did finally, and rather begrudgingly, hop into the van, and of course, since she needed to have the last word, she promptly jumped up on the back seat. The one towel at the entry of the van did not undo the damage the fire hydrant had caused, and so my dear children had the great pleasure of wiping off the seats (yes, seats. She also thought it would be cute to put her paws up on the middle seat from the back seat she was sitting in). Now if she'd smiled at me like Winn Dixie, I think I would have lost it. I'm sure anyone watching our shinanagins were already chuckling.