Another police officer came to the house—this time he wasn’t talking about arresting the dogs, but arresting me because apparently I’m their registered owner and three strikes and you’re out. Right on the spot, I have to confess, I wondered whether you could be arrested for things your kids do. So I usually use the spiel about the coyote den behind the house that the dogs are barking at and often it works, but this time it didn’t. I don’t think they’d want to take Daisy and Zar down to station because they’ve been spending a lot time around the skunk den in our yard—we can’t seem to get rid of the skunks! This is clearly the wilderness out here—I don’t care what John says. Did I mention that we accidentally trapped a house cat? I’m sure the neighbors are calling the police right now—they like to do that. Daisy, the female, charges the skunks while Zar, the guy, hangs back and lets her do all the work. It really reminds me of Kate in my novel, False Alarm, who has to do all the dirty work while the boys in the office are having a good time. She’s responsible for getting the athlete-clients urine tested. Urine testing—that was my department, too, even though I was hired to crunch numbers.

We get the police a lot in spite of our incredibly remote location. Once, I was dialing India and the country code is 91. I must have accidentally hit 911 because all of a sudden the police were in the house. One man had cornered my mother, who was blow drying her hair. He asked her her age and she refused to tell him.  That is so what Kate’s mom, Virginia, would do it. Now there’s some character inspiration.