They say adversity brings people together.  Apparently the same holds true for Dogs and Coyotes.  Last night started like any other, but then it happened.  An infernal smoke detector began chirping indicating a battery needed to be changed!  With my ears perked up I sat motionless in the dark, holding my breath, waiting for the next sporadic chirp.  Surely Mom or Dad would be down here any second to stop it.  No such luck.  It really wasn’t a surprise that Dad and Asa ignored that ear piercing sound, but where was Mom?  She never sleeps through anything.  I started barking, and reluctantly she came downstairs.  Finally a little help.  But what did she do?  She gave me some lame excuse of it not being safe for her to climb a ladder half asleep and I’ll just have to be brave for a couple hours until morning.  Be brave?  This is not a case of bravery!  Doesn’t she know that chirp is the exact pitch that will scramble Dogs’ minds and drive them slowly insane?!  It is a little known fact that smoke detectors’ dying battery chirps were designed by Cats to torment Dogs.  But I digress.

As the night wore on the incessant chirping continued at just the right pace to make it impossible to sleep.  Except Asa, like Dad, he can sleep through anything.  I decided to take matters into my own paws and began searching the house for the offending smoke detector.  As soon as I thought I located the defective alarm it would go silent, and then I would hear the maddening chirp coming from another part of the house.  However, with patience I finally identified the culprit.  I sat directly beneath it and began barking.  This time Dad responded.  Finally!  After he said a few words I can’t repeat, he got a ladder, and went to work changing the offending batteries.  Within minutes, and a few more words I can’t repeat, Dad fixed the smoke detector, petted me on the head, and went to bed.

Then the maddening chirp happened again!  Dad changed the wrong smoke detector!  Ok, so that may have been my fault for alerting him to the wrong one.  But seriously, I can’t be held responsible for everything in this house.  As I sat in dark anticipating the next chirp that’s when I heard something completely unexpected.  Off in the distance the Coyotes were howling.  I haven’t heard the Coyotes for months!  Asa said it was just a coincidence and rolled over and went back to sleep.  It was not a mere coincidence that they chose this exact moment to begin howling!  No doubt their ears are as sensitive as mine.  Deep in the woods they, too, were being kept awake by that wretched chirping!  That’s the only logical explanation for all the noise they were making.  Our cacophony of chirp, bark, howl lasted into the predawn hours.  The Coyotes were the first to quiet down, exhausted I finally fell asleep too, and finally the chirping went silent conveniently just a half hour before Mom and Dad normally get up.  Peace at last!  Now if you’ll please excuse me, I need to supervise Dad as he changes the batteries in ALL the smoke detectors.