Dog's Strange Feat

      I have two schnauzers, as most of you know. This morning I came downstairs and let both of them out as I usually do. Both went back upstairs as they usually do. When my wife came downstairs the younger black dog came with her. She couldn't get the older dog to come down, so she closed the gate on the stairs figuring that otherwise the younger dog would return upstairs and the two of them would get into mischief. Later, when I came in, my wife explained the problem and asked me to go up and bring the older dog downstairs and make sure he hadn't done anything he shouldn't have. I turned to go upstairs and here came the older dog into the kitchen. So I figured he had come down and my wife simply missed it. "No way", was her response. He was sitting on the first dtep from the landing (about mid-way up the stairs) and refused to come down further, so I shut the gate. So I immediately looked at the door between the parlour and the diningroom, but it was tightly shut, so he hadn't come down the front stairs and entered that way. Did he jump the gate? I suppose it would be possible, but from that heigth it appears to me that he would have hit the bathroom door when he lit; the hallway is rather narrow at that point. No one heard anything and we were standing only a few feet away in the kitchen. Interesting if he did make that jump; but that has to be the only logical explaination. But thats quite a jump for a small dog and in a rather confined space.

Cigar smoke

     Yesterday upon unlocking the door and entering  the house from the western door into the kitchen,  I could distinctly smell cigar smoke, actually it was stale cigar smoke. This has happened a few times over the years, just like the lavender scent that crops up sometimes. but it still tends to worry you. Both of my dogs were behaving normally and they go nuts whenever anyone other than my wife or I enter the house. They even act like idiots when the UPS man delivers a package and they are quite friendly with him outside of the house. So I doubt anyone smelling of cigar smoke was actually in the house. Such is the price we pay to live in old houses. I just don't know the source of the smoke or the lavender. My wife does not use lavender and neither of us smoke nor allow smoking in the house. The smell was only noticeable in the kitchen area which is in the rear of the house well away from roads and neighbors.

The Creepy Begins

  The strange has begun a bit early this season. My wife has been visiting a friend this week so the sole occupants of this big barn are myself and my two schnauzers. I hadn't noticed any strange noises or otherwise until today. I have a collection of old flat tin figures, collectors call them Zinnfigurens. I have them displayed in showcases in the upstairs hall. This week I have been in the upstairs hall several times and everything has been normal. The front room at the end of the hall was once used as a chestroom, like a large closet it is actually large enough for a bed and chest of drawers but we use it to store Christmas decorations primarily. Today I was taking some items I found in the Den to store in the Christmas room. When I walked toward the Christmas room I noticed things laying on the floor in front of the showcase. Several of the zinnfigures were lined up on the floor. How did they get out of the case? The showcase is an upright case almost 6ft tall and you load it FROM THE SIDE. No way my schnauzers got in to them and I never knew a dog to line anything up anyway. I didn't do it. This isn't the first physical manification that has happened here but it is the first in a long time. I put the figures back. I hope they stay there.