The UPS man cometh, and for him the Belle tolls

OK, literature lovers can have a go at me for the title, but today marked another watershed in the New Dog saga.

Until this point, Belle has been as gentle as a lamb and as quiet as a church mouse around the Lair. But this afternoon, the UPS man came, bringing me a small box of little consequence aside from it's role in this tale.

Murphy, as is his wont, was going crazy inside the house. It's his goal in life to shred the UPS man (or anyone else who encroaches on his domain, even if they come bearing a box from Brownells). I slid the patio door that leads onto my deck open, being careful to keep a crutch in between Murphy and the opening, for he really wanted that UPS guy. Belle circled around to my other side and made a dash for the opening and I reflexively thrust a leg into her path to block her. Alas, this was the leg with no foot on it and she merely ducked and ran right through the empty space. (And man, does it ever piss me off when the dogs do that!)

I stepped out and slid the door closed, trapping Murphy in the house, leaving him to bark and slather and slam up against the window in impotent rage. Belle seemed content to just run back and forth along the deck rail, watching the UPS guy but not showing any aggression towards him. The UPS guy looked up and I told him that the evil one was contained in the house and that this one was pretty harmless so he could come on up. But it appears that I misspoke, for as soon as he touched the bottom step, Belle ran at him, thrust her head between the deck rails next to the step, and began to bark at him in a serious manner, causing him to back off fast.

"Uh, sorry about that," I lamely said. "She's still fairly new here."

We settled for his just tossing the box up to me while behind me, on the other side of the glass, I could almost feel Murphy's smirk of approval. He's teaching her well and I guess that I now have both a Hellhound and an apprentice Hellhound.

They're plotting in the gun room, just behind my chair.