FACES & PLACES LOCAL COLOR MAY- JUNE 2009   Cody by Marilyn Bullock Meet Cody, the angel dog. My dog, Lexi, and I met Cody, then an adorable blond Labrador retriever, a year ago when he was just eight weeks old and Lexi’s size – about 12 pounds.  The two of them would romp and play until I had to literally drag Lexi away else she would drop from sheer exhaustion.  Since then, Cody has grown into quite a handsome dog – friendly, gentle, and obedient.  Whenever we pass by Cody’s house, Lexi pulls at her leash, hoping that her eagerness to play will make him magically appear before her. Lexi and Cody Today, Lexi got her wish.  As we approached Cody’s house, I saw Chris, Cody’s owner, talking to another neighbor and holding Cody by his collar as he struggled to run towards Lexi and me. Chris finally let go of the collar saying, “There, go play.”   Cody ran up to Lexi and the two performed their typical doggy sniffy routine while Chris finished her conversation and walked over to greet us.  Meanwhile, another neighbor, Lynn, and her dog, Cinny, a beautiful cinnamon colored doberman, stopped by to check out the excitement. Chris is pretty low-key.  She has a husband, two young girls, and Cody. She participates in her children's school activities and sports and frequently plays hostess to family and friend gatherings. Yet, somehow, she manages to juggle everything with an upbeat attitude, a positive outlook on life, and a very dry sense of humor. “Cody figured out how to open the door to our bedroom yesterday,” she said matter-of-factly, “and the door was locked.”  She proceeded to tell Lynn and I that the family had left Cody for one hour in the master bedroom while they went to the first-grade play at the New Hope Solebury Elementary School.   They knew that Cody had fiddled with the door-knob because there were telltale scratches around the locking mechanism on the handle.  However, long before they figured out HOW Cody released himself from his bedroom bondage, they knew something was amiss – starting with Cody greeting them at the door upon their return. And then Tom, Chris’ husband, yelled from the kitchen, “You HAVE to see this before I clean it up.” OK, wait a second, before I continue, you have to know that earlier in the day Chris had gone shopping for the Memorial Day weekend, so there was a virtual feast in the kitchen.  And, because the family was in such a rush to get to the school on time, they had left the girls’ lunch containers on the counter.  So, here we go, you KNOW what’s coming next… Yes, after his “great escape,” Cody ate everything in sight: two packages of sandwich bread, a package of hot dog buns, a package of hamburger buns, six ring pops, two extra large packs of Bubblelicious bubble gum, a large bunch of bananas (they think there were at least six of them), a boxed apple pie, and whatever was leftover from the kids’ lunches – half of a yogurt, half an apple, and some pretzels. Chris was amazed how Cody did NOT eat any of the packaging during this rampage AND how he had managed to PEEL the bananas. “It looked like Cody put his paw on one end of the banana and somehow ate the banana without making any bite marks on the peels,” explained Chris. However, the pièce de résistance was the apple pie.   Cody was able to open the pie box such that the box was not damaged.  “I can’t even do that,” Chris said in amazement.  (Tom was just upset that the pie was gone.) Amazingly, Cody did not get sick.   Chris did find some poop in the yard that smelled suspiciously like bubblegum.