"Your dog is on the roof"
My favorite story about Jedi happened one night in September 2016. Matt and I had gone out to dinner. We were at Nikki Rottens about 45 minutes south in cuyamaca. I had just put my order in and my phone rang. It was an unknown number and I'm not sure why I answered it - typically I let it go to voicemail. If I'm being honest I know why I answered it - I was not super thrilled to be with the people we were eating with. We were there to see the Mexican (yes our best friend has an inappropriate nickname. He proudly gave it to himself), but about 8 others who I didn't know, were all younger than me and didn't have much in common with had come as well. Frankly I was looking for an excuse to step away. So when my phone rang I was more than happy to go answer it. And the night got exciting. "hello?" "Hi. Is this Christine?" "Yeah this is Kristyn..." people who get my name wrong are usually a good indicator I don't know you and I probably don't really want to talk to you. "Hey this is Shawn - your neighbor from two doors down? I took some of that broken concrete?" Oh!! Yeah, ok - I know this guy! I had given him my number because we were doing a construction project in our front yard and I wanted to be a consciessebtus neighbor. Well.. what's he want? It's strange that he's calling me... "Oh, hey Shawn! What's up?" "Umm so I'm calling to let you know your dog is on your roof." "... huh?" Did I just hear that right? Shoot! "Jedi? He's on the roof?" "Yeah. He's running around barking on your roof." At this point my phone starts ringing again. I look at it to see who the caller is this time, and my next door neighbor on the other side is calling me. I didn't answer and he left a message. I kept that message on my phone for months. In fact in April 2017 it's still on my phone. I played it for strangers. In the message he says "hi uhh Kristyn? This is Efren. Your neighbor. I'm just calling to tell you that your dog is... on the roof..." his voice trails off and you hear Jedi panic bark 4 times then hang up. It's hysterical. I played that many times to make myself smile on a bad day. So anyways back to my phone conversation with Shawn I tell him Efren is calling me. And I go into animal trainer mode. I'm breaking down the situation. Who are my players? Where am I? How long will it take to get to my dog? Will my dog jump off the roof? What's he going to do if he does? I ask Shawn what his comfort is with dogs and dishearteningly he tells me he doesn't know much about dogs or do well with them. That was something I pondered long after. But my quick answer was "ok. Don't do anything. Don't touch him. He's not a nice dog and I'm on my way home!" Somewhere in this short conversation I had grabbed the keys from matt and hopped in the Kia and was speeding my way home in the dark. Shawn dubiously said ok. Efren called me back, or I called him. I can't remember and told me that his daughters boyfriend had climbed up on the roof. Alex picked Jedi up and put him back in my room, then shut the window. Now they were looking for something soft for him to jump off the roof and land on. My front yard was filled with bushes, but matt had been working in the backyard and our ladder was out back. I told them they could use that. I was probably 15 minutes into the 45 minute drive home and Jedi was safe and sound, secure in the house. I turned around and went back to dinner with a great story. And a great appreciation for my neighbors.
