The Poop Bandit

Saturday, June 6... the day of Max's big 3rd birthday party. It just so happened to be the same day as our neighbor Dan's big 30th birthday party. It was early in the day and both houses were frantically preparing for their guests to arrive. Ashley (neighbor) and I saw each other in the back yard and took a little break from the tasks at hand to chat about the day ahead. The kids were playing in the yard and Lily was running free, taking her usual 30 minutes to decide where to relieve herself. Several minutes had passed as I got caught up in the conversation, then suddenly realized that Lily was out of sight. I took a quick glance in the yard, then immediately turned to the neighbor's back door. For reasons unknown to any of us, Max and Lily's secret goals in life are to get into the neighbor's house through the back door as many times as they can possibly get away with. Ashley and I then simultaneously realized that the door that had previously been shut but not latched was now open about the width of an 11 lb. shih-tzu. Just as this realization occurred, Lily came storming out of the back door and into the yard. I attempted to sternly scold her, but, as always, she ignored me like a teenage girl. All was forgotten... UNTIL later that day when the parties were in full swing. A guest at the neighbor's party discreetly pulled Dan aside and said, "Dan, did one of the kids crap in the corner?" (they concluded that it must have been one of the kids as they no longer own a pet (RIP Duke) and no one at the party had yet achieved the level of drunkenness that makes you think pooping in the corner of someone else's house is a good idea). A bewildered Dan told Ashley, who immediately realized that the culprit was not the innocent children attending the party, but was none other than Lily, the shih-tzu-next-door, a.k.a. "The Poop Bandit".
Luckily for Kevin and I, Dan and Ashley have a good sense of humor and are not totally turned off by some other dog's poo. Although we're completely mortified, we're happy everyone had a good laugh.