A couple of years after we got Linus, we moved to Florence. One day, we were having cable installed and Linda worried about what to do with the dogs, especially Linus (Shwea, being a Lab at heart, stuck like glue, but Linus was another story). To keep him out of harm’s way, she first put him in the backyard, but he quickly found his way out of that. Then, Linda put him in her Subaru, with the sunroof cracked open for air. She thought nothing more about it until the cable guy came in and said, “You know, your dog is running up and down the street.” Linus had somehow slipped through the sunroof and escaped to the busy street in front of our house—unharmed. And he remained unharmed when Linda chased him down and brought him back home, exhausted but happy.

That wasn’t the only time Linus “escaped” our house in Florence. One afternoon Ann took Shwea for an “extra” constitutional (Shwea always has about 10 pounds to lose, much like her people), and Linus was not pleased about being left behind. Even though Linda was in the backyard with him, he waited until she wasn’t looking and leapt over the fence to run and catch up with Ann and Shwea. It was something—Ann heard a fuss, then saw a dog in the distance and thought, “Funny—that dog looks a lot like Linus.” Then she saw—and heard—Linda chasing after him, and quickly headed home to help bring him back before anyone got hurt (no one did).

A canine gourmand. Linus also was much more adventurous than Shwea where food was concerned. He introduced Shwea to dumpster diving, for the thought of tipping over the garbage to get to its contents never occurred to Shwea on her own. Linus also was very deft, and could nab baked goods out of what were considered “secure” locations on the kitchen counter without disturbing anything. Every so often we would come home and find a licked-clean bakery tin or torn-open bread bag on the floor, and turn to see Linus looking contrite, his ears back and tail thumping on the floor.

One of his more creative "dives" involved a large cardboard box full of canned and bagged dog food and dog biscuits. It was delivered to the house just before we had to go somewhere, but we figured it was safe--all of the contents were either cans or metal bags, except for one small box of biscuits. Well, as you may have guessed, we figured wrong. Linus had assessed the situation, and found the small corner where the dog biscuit box was resting. He gnawed through the box at that exact spot--a surgical strike!--and he and Shwea had a wonderful feast before we returned home. Both of them gave us the "I'm soooooo sorry" look that night! 

Another Linus culinary adventure had to do with another move. When we moved to our current home in Northampton, we put Linus in Ann's car--with the windows slightly cranked and the sunroof sealed tight. He didn’t find a way out of the car, but in Ann's distraction over the move, she left an almost full cappuccino in the front cup holder, and wouldn’t you know, Linus got into it and slurped it all down. When we let him out of the car to investigate his new digs, he was wired.