Poodles, pitbulls and pansies

I didn't see this, just heard about it, but I'm telling everyone. It's like my favorite new story.

So, the other day, my in-laws, Mikey and my dog Zeke are sitting outside on the front porch for happy hour. When all of a sudden, they have the bejeezus scared out of them by a couple of poodles.

Here's how it went down:

Zeke, a sensitive soul

Zeke likes to stand at the top of the stairs and, because he's not in touch with his "inner editor," he barks "hello" at passerby. When he gets their attention, he stops. We've talked about this, and it's something Zeke is working on. Barking alarms pansies. And really, that's all Zeke does. Barks.

Enter the poodle people.

As mom, dad and Mikey are enjoying the sun, two women walk by with two highly manicured poodles on leashes. These pups look like they've been baked at a salon. They've got muffin tops and furry bons bons. They are damn fancy.

Now, for some reason, Zeke doesn't bark at these people or their dogs. Maybe he felt empathy for the ridiculous looking dogs. However...

As soon as the women see Zeke, one starts screaming at the top of her lungs, 

"NO!! NO!! NO!!"

This about knocks the ice cubes outta my in-laws' cocktails. Zeke is frozen in fear. My husband is at a loss for words (See "how to win a domestic argument" 101).

Then the other woman picks up her dog and starts yelling at my family,

"SO. NOT. COOL! SOOOO! NOTTTT! COOOOLLL!!!!" And they storm across the street.

During this scene, and it was an abomination (neighbors came outside to find out who was being skinned alive), my dog never left the porch. He never left the yard. But as soon as the freaky "poodle people" walked across the street, he ran into the bushes, hid and whimpered. My in-laws were just in awe. And by this time, my kids had joined the family on the porch. 

And that's the story. No moral, other than it's nice to see that our neighbors will come out of their homes to see a good fight. Suppose that's reassuring.