*

Friday when I worked from home the weather was extra nice so I left the back door open so Rufus could come in and go out as he pleased. He likes to lie on the hot tub cover in the sun, you see , but also likes to wander in and bark from the front window at people on the sidewalk. So all day long he'd come in and go out but around mid day I heard him barking in the back yard , assuming he was barking at the dog in the yard behind ours. When I went out to hush him I realized he was barking at the deck. Looking straight down at the boards, barking at the deck. Every time he went out he'd bark at the same spot on the deck and I pretty much thought my dog had finally lost it, maybe had eaten some of that tainted dog food and it made him nutty. But then Saturday morning he didn't bark at the deck at all , I guess the deck had lost it's luster or something. I forgot about the barkable deck.

Saturday afternoon I was out on the deck, sitting in the sun and working on some paintings. I could hear our new neighbors to our left out in their backyard, as could Rufus, who proceeded to bark at them. I yelled "Rufus, be good" and from the other side of the 8 ft hedge I heard our neighbor Marie say "If Rufus finds a box turtle, we lost one , he tends to wander off---that's how we got him ". This is probably the second time since October that I've talked to the new neighbors and I couldn't even see them. She said he'd probably have found the turtle by now and was likely to go into hibernation soon, being out of it's element I guess . I assured Marie that had Rufus found a box turtle he'd be so proud he'd have to show me his find.......and that's when I remembered his barking at the deck. The turtle had to have crawled under the deck and hunkered down, having crawled under by the stairs where there was a small opening and wandered about 6 feet deep under the deck. I'm sure it's highly unlikely to lure the turtle out with bagged spinach (which I did try) and there's no way we 'd be able to take the deck apart as it's screwed from the underside and I'd have to take the deck completely apart starting from the opposite side just to get to the left side where the turtle is hunkered down. Marie joked that she was going to put up some "lost turtle" fliers, like people do for their dogs. So, I told the new neighbors we had not seen the turtle but if it turned up I'd let them know.

Big sigh on Sunday when Rufus still didn't bark at the deck.

And then Monday Rufus started the barking at the deck back up, and at this point I was convinced the turtle was under there, in hiding . But what to do? I can't take the deck apart. Period. And if the turtle dies his stench will ruin every summer BBQ we throw. Maybe I'll see if I can dig a tunnel under the deck and grab the missing turtle. Hope it's not a biting turtle. This all leads me to wonder, why don't people leash their turtles? Leash laws are required for dogs, why not turtles since they tend to wander off and ruin BBQs.

*If only the turtle was under this part of the deck, no brainer.