I used to have a Jack Russell Terrier. He was really a very amusing dog, smart and quick and full of enough energy to run a power station. He obeyed pretty well, but I couldn't stop the digging. As I understand it, terriers instinctively dig because they’ve been bred to dig to catch rodents. If so, Teddy was a true terrier.

At the time we had Teddy, my husband and I lived in a small size house with a rather smallish back yard that had one of those high wooden fences around it. I gave Teddy a big cement pot with lots of dirt to dig in, but that just didn't satisfy him in the long run. Of course, he knew not to dig in the yard, which is why he did his major digging when no one was around to watch him.

Teddy required lots of exercise, and we took walks and bike rides, played ball and frisbee, and in his spare time, Teddy continued to dig.

One day, I think it was a Saturday, I was inside the house doing something I can’t remember, but somehow it must have been very absorbing because I left Teddy on his own in the back yard for a couple of hours or more.

Suddenly, I heard a scream. Fearing goodness knows what, I ran out into the back. The screaming was coming from my next–door neighbor on the other side of the fence. On our side of the fence, fairly deep in a large, fresh hole, was Teddy’s rear end, tail wagging madly. Of his head, I could see nothing.

I climbed up on the lower crosspiece of the fence and peeked over to apologize, and there was my neighbor in her bikini, just up from a drowsy nap in the sun. Evidently, she was still a little giddy from the sun and the sleep, and she couldn’t figure out what the head was, so she just screamed. And seeing me, she screamed some more and pointed at Teddy. I think she was a rather nervous sort.

I looked down at Teddy’s dirty face and silly grin poking out under the fence. I guess she took him for some large sized rodent or maybe something out of a horror movie, who knows? When she finally calmed down, I apologized and told her it was just my dog, at which she stared for a moment in silence and then collapsed onto her pink lounge chair in gales of laughter.

At that point, Teddy decided his break was over. He pulled his head back under, and the dirt started flying again, until I grabbed him bodily and took him inside for a bath, scolding all the way.

Making good use of shovels, hoes, rakes, new dirt and grass seed, my husband and I repaired the damage on both sides of the fence. Shortly after that our neighbors moved, whether because of Teddy’s adventures or not, I don't know. We’ve moved since then, and Teddy lived a full and eventful life for a Jack Russell Terrier, and I own a Rottweiller now. He doesn't tend to dig much, to my husband’s great delight.