My night as James Bond.

The trickster.

So dog sitting had been going pretty well--lots of relaxing by the pool, watching tv, playing, walks around the neighborhood...until last night at 9pm. It rained for hours yesterday afternoon/evening, and little Daisy wanted to go outside (but not by herself). Being a thoughtful dog sitter, I go outside with her in the rain and wait for her to do her business. Now Callie (who shall from now on be referred to as The Trickster) wanted to come outside too, but due to her romps in puddles in the preceding hours, she was denied access. I noticed her sulking by the back door but thought nothing of it. I dried Daisy off and went to come back inside...but the back door was locked. 

Deadbolt locked. 

Like I'm sure everyone does upon discovering that he/she is locked out (at least that's what I tell myself), I stand at the door and shake it and try twisting the handle different ways, hoping that it's just stuck. No such luck. The Trickster, in her hopes to be allowed passage outside, had somehow flipped the deadbolt just enough (it wasn't the whole way) so that I couldn't get in. And then she stood at the door, still hoping I'd let her outside. I didn't have any shoes on, my cell phone was inside, and my car was in the locked garage.

So in the midst of the lightning and thunder, I thought I remembered the owners saying they had a copy of the key on the front porch. Luckily I hadn't locked the gate from when the mowers came that afternoon. I ran to the front of the house, and of course I had forgotten to turn on the porch light when it got dark. So I crawled around on my hands and knees, trying to feel for a key everywhere I thought one might live. No luck. I looked around to see if any of the neighbors were home so that I could call my parents to bring the spare key. Of the neighbors I've made eye contact with in the past 2 years of dog sitting, none of them were home. Awesome.

I ran around back again, hoping that the defunct doggie door to the attached garage would allow me passage inside (I knew the door to the house inside was unlocked because I had used it earlier in the week). There was a burglar door on it, so I had to carefully slide it up so that I could crawl through. Of course, it was darker than dark as I felt my way across the garage that I've only been in three times. After what felt like 10 minutes, I finally found the door and got back inside. I finally let poor Daisy back in and The Trickster ran away and hid in the dining room for the rest of the evening. Very interesting night.

Has anyone else ever had to be creative from being locked out?