"Someone stole Ike from our house!!"

You're probably thinking to yourself, What's with all the puppy love? This is so odd, D never mentions her dog. In fact, I didn't even realize she had a dog! This is new information!

Or not.

Anyway, there has been some excessive puppy snuggling going on in this house after we had a slight scare. Last night we went out to dinner. Before we left, as usual, we closed the doors to the bedroom, the office, and the bathroom so that Ike couldn't get into my shoe collection (which, yes, spans three rooms at times). As usual, Ike was free to roam the kitchen and the living room. Y threw him a treat to occupy him and we went on our merry way.

An hour later, we got home, expecting to see this as we walked in the door:

But there was nothing.

Panicking, we ran around his area -- the kitchen, dining room, and living room -- and didn't see him anywhere.

Then I noticed we had left the back door unlocked. Naturally, our reaction was that someone had stolen Ike. Naturally.

I would love to see a slow-mo replay of our reaction. We ran out into the street, screaming for Ike. My next door neighbor happened to have just pulled up in her car, and I knocked on her window and blurted out something like SOMEONE STOLE IKE FROM INSIDE OF OUR HOUSE!! We ran back and forth through the house a few times, and then Y opened the bedroom door.

Somehow Ike had opened the bedroom door, gone into the bedroom, closed the bedroom door, and eaten one of Y's shoes.

Sidebar: Why does Y's shoe get a little hole, whereas mine gets devoured?

I suspect this isn't the first time he's snuck in when we weren't around -- the other night I found a bone buried underneath my pillow.

I think our reaction says a lot about how highly we think of our dog. For 2 minutes, we were absolutely positive that someone had gotten into our house, seen various electronics, appliances, 3 rooms worth of shoes, stacks and stacks of med school notes, and a homemade chocolate cake, and left with only Ike. Crazy dog people, much?