Good news! My handbag has been recovered!

I got a phone call from a town officer this morning - the computer was on, so he left a message. He said that my handbag and some of its contents had been recovered. A lady who lives on the street behind us looked out her back window and saw the bag laying in her yard so she turned it into the police. Yay for her!

The officer said he had to "do an inventory" of the contents, which means that at least something was still in there. At this point, I don't care if it was a hairpin, it's just the idea that something good is happening....that somebody gave a hoot enough to turn it in, and at least I'll get the handbag itself back.

It's not like it's a designer purse or anything, but The Hub gave it to me for Christmas last year and I could tell he spent a lot of time picking it out. It's probably been run over or something....but maybe it won't be a total loss. I don't expect anything of value to still be there, but there may be some things that were meaningful to me will still be in it.

The officer who recovered it works night shift. He comes on at 11:00. I left him a voice mail & said that we are up late, and if he could, I'd like it if he could phone me and let me know what was in there. The dispatcher at the police station said that I could probably pick the bag up on Tuesday, tomorrow being a holiday and all.

Who knows? Maybe the thief had an attack of conscience and just tossed the whole thing over a fence.

Or it could have been an attack of a rottwieler / dobbie mix....I happened to run into my neighbor, Spike's Mom, at Target today. Spike, you may remember, is Winston's friend, the rottwieller-doberman who lives in back and diagonal to us. Spike is a very sweet dog, but he's BIG, every bit as tall as Winston, and he's fond of me. When I first met him he made a pretty serious effort to sit on my lap, and if he ever gets out of his yard he often comes over here, looking bewildered, so I can take him home. For some reason he doesn't understand the concept of the front and back of his house, and I have to take him down the alley and then up the street, whereupon he realizes where he is and runs up to the door.

Anyway, I was telling Spike's Mom to be careful and lock her doors since I had this robbery.

"When was this?" she asked.

"Last Friday night."

"Really? Hmm. You know, that night, Young Dave knocked on our door to tell me Spike was loose, and the back gate was open. We never use it. "

I couldn't help but treat myself to the image of the thief, running down the alley with my handbag, opening the back gate of my neighbors house, either to try to steal from her or looking for a quick outlet onto the next street over and then encountering Spike. Moreover, I imagine that that my handbag smelled like me but the dude carrying it did not. Spike may not be the dog equivelent of a rocket scientist, but he had to know something was up. And he has a terrifying bark and pretty impressive demeanor. I mean, Young Dave knows him and has a dog himself....but he didn't slip a leash around his neck and pop him back in his front door the way I have done.

Or, better yet, I imagine the thief having opened Spike's back gate while Spike was in the house but deciding that back door wasn't promising....Spike barking at the back door, my neighbor thinking he just had to go out and so opening the door....meanwhile the person is up here ripping off my purse, getting barked at by Winston. It's fun to imagine him feeling that he had narrowly escaped Winston, while Spike is making his way across the yard to see what's going on. Can you imagine the theif getting back in the alley and then finding Spike out there, loose, waiting for him? And Spike is big into chasing people. He only chases them so far, then he sits down and is sad because, in most cases, they keep running and never come back. ( If you turn around and run at Spike he figures it's his turn to be the "chasee" and takes off....and he'd do this all day if he only had someone to play with!)....but, I'm guessing the thief didn't know this. And if that was true he might have thrown my handbag over the nearest fence, wallet, jewelry, camera and all simply to be rid of the weight!!

Good old Spike. He always has been a good neighbor!