Last night I lost Yogi

I let the dogs out about 11:30 for a bedtime pee and when I let them back in and counted heads I only counted five dog heads swooshing under my hand. I counted again. No Yogi. I looked in the main part of the house where I thought he had been tucked up under the table where I was reading. Hmmm. Yogi has a bad habit of jumping the fence and going walkabout, but he hasn't done that since June, so I have gotten lax about keeping a keen eye on him.

For the next two hours I walked around the neighborhood, waited and looked and tried to read and worried and fussed. It was late at night, therefore the neighbors probably wouldn't notice him and get mad. It was late at night and I couldn't walk down the sidewalk yelling his name. It was late at night and traffic was light, so chances are he wouldn't get hit by a car. It was late at night and Yogi loves to sleep with me on the bed, surely he will come home to his bed. What if he doesn't come home by morning? What if he comes home mid-morning while I'm at work and he sits on the porch and the mailman comes and Yogi jumps up and chases him? Then we'll get in trouble.

Finally about 1:30 a.m. I gave up trying to worry him home and went to my bedroom. I stumbled through the dark and changed into my pajamas, then I turned around and looked at the bed. There in the darkness, I saw something white glowing on the blanket. A large solid donut-shaped object. I reached out my fingers and touched warm fur. "Yogi?" He lifted his head a fraction as if to say, "Dude, it's 1:30 in the morning, let me sleep," then tucked his nose under his tail again.

I started to laugh and had to leave the bedroom lest I wake up my husband. I laughed for a good long time, snorting included, then I went back to bed, I had to work in the morning.