<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Becky asked why I went through a doggie door. That's kind of like asking why the chicken crossed the road.... to get to the other side, of course!<div><br></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica">I was taking care of my friend Jennifer's dogs at her house for once. I can't remember why they weren't at my house like they usually are, but I'm sure there was a good reason. When I got to her house, I couldn't get my key to unlock the back door. She'd had a new lock put on, and it was supposed to be keyed to the old key, but I couldn't get it to turn. The front door stuck something terrible, and I knew it'd be impossible in the current humidity to get into the house that way. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 17px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica">That left the dog door in the back door. And I was wearing a summer sun dress. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 17px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica">But the dogs really needed to be let out and have their water checked and refreshed. So I did what any good friend of slight body build would do for a couple of really nice dogs--I went through the doggie door. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 17px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica">It wasn't that hard (though it would have been much easier if I hadn't had to worry about that dress staying where it should). I got down on the ground kind of on my side and put my head through, then raised one shoulder higher than the other and sent it through, and then brought my other shoulder, still in its lowered position, through. Once my shoulders were through, getting the rest of me in went smoothly and quickly because my shoulders are the widest part of my body. It was a little tight again with my hips, but I just tilted them so that one went through first and then the other, like my shoulders. Home free after that. Even better, none of the neighbors seemed to notice my illegal entry, and I was able to keep my dress from hiking up. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 17px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica">After taking care of the dogs, I found I could unlock the back door from the inside and then relock it from the outside, so I wasn't forced to leave in the same way. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 17px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica">That trip through a doggie door made me realize just how easy it is for a smallish adult, and definitely a child acting under an adult's instructions, to go through a medium-sized dog door with a flap. To make the realization worse, Jennifer had had a plastic "security" panel slipped down a track behind the plastic flap, so that, in theory, no one could get in. In practice, however, I had absolutely no trouble raising that plastic panel up from the outside because it didn't have any locking mechanism to keep it down. All it was good for was keeping out wild animals, not wild people. When we bought our dog door, I made sure it had a lock and a panel that can be truly secured. I can't get through our dog door when it's locked, so I'm pretty sure no one else can either.</font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica">I told Jennifer when she got home what I'd done, and she's since secured her house against people like me. Even better, she's also replaced the front door with one that doesn't stick. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica">Elizabeth</font></div></body></html>