My Janie is the best. She really is.

You know there’s a “but” in here somewhere, right?

Well, yes, there is…

My Janie is the best. She really is. BUT sometimes she is absent-minded.

Like today.

Janie had an early appointment today that she wasn’t sure how long it would last, so she asked me if I could please pick up her children, Ryder and Seth, and bring them to my home. “Of course,” I said, seeing that I love my little granddoggies and didn’t want them to be alone for any length of time.

Easy? Should have been. I have a key to Janie’s house. I know where the leashes are. I know exactly how long it takes both Rydie and Sethy to do their outdoor “things” before they hop into my car. And I love helping out when I can.

So. I arrived at Janie’s house. I put my hand on her side screen door handle and pressed the knob with my thumb. It was locked.

I went to her front screen door. Locked.

I went to her back screen door. Locked too.

By now the doggies were wondering what Grandma was doing outside. At every door. “She never acts like this,” is what I could hear them barking. Or maybe they heard my language and were horrified.

I called Janie on her cell phone and calmly explained the situation. “Oh,” she said. “I always go out through the garage door. Steve always locks the screen doors.”

“OK,” I said. “What do I do?” The sub-title to this was something like, “OK. I’m happy that you and Steve think I travel with a de-molecularizer. But I didn’t bring it along this time.”

She suggested trying the garage door. I did. It was locked.

She thought for a moment. I knew there was nothing she could do from where she was… so I stayed calm for her sake.

“Are Rydie and Seth going crazy?” she asked.

I couldn’t lie. She could hear them. So I said, “Let me call Daddy.”

I did. His business is less than five minutes from Janie’s house, so he was there in a flash. My husband thought about busting a garage window in order to open the inside door to the house, but then he didn’t like the idea of glass and glass in paws and all that. So he thought that perhaps one of their downstairs windows might be opened, and I could crawl through it. Well, it just so happens that last night was our first cold night of the season, so none of the windows were opened even a crack.

By then Janie had called back. She remembered that Steve had shut all the downstairs windows because it was so cold last night. Yes, we knew. But she also thought that her upstairs back bathroom window may be opened because she needed to let the steam out during a shower this morning.

We headed to the back of the house. The doggies were now really wondering what was going on out there. Ah. The bathroom window was opened a couple of inches.

So now what? My husband called one of his employees and asked if he could drive over a big ladder.

He did. I went up. I opened the window. I crawled in.

My granddoggies were ecstatic to see me, albeit a bit confused with my entry.

I immediately got their leashes. I let them out. They needed to “go.”

I called Janie to let her know that all was well. She was, as you can imagine, very relieved.

I wondered if I should tell her that it may have been a good idea to unlock the screen doors.

Nah. But I will remind her next time.

Because there will be a next time!

Ah. My Janie. She’s the best!