The case of the missing wallet

Have you ever lost your wallet? Well, I can't say as I ever had, so it was very frustrating on Saturday evening, when I wanted to take the wife out for the rare date night, that I could not find my wallet where it was supposed to be - safe and snug in my jean's back pocket. I had it just an hour earlier at Walmart when I was buying more rope to tie plastic tarps over four blooming fruit trees before the temperature dropped to 21 that night.

Did I do something unusual like put the wallet in my sweatshirt pocket? Maybe. I went back to Walmart thinking some Good Samaritan found it and turned it in. No joy. I called them next afternoon after Church. No joy. I checked the Internet frequently both days to monitor my various debit cards and credit cards to see if a not-so-good-Samaritan had found it. No activity. I searched my truck for the 3rd time. No joy.

Which made me think more and more that it must have fallen out of my sweatshirt pocket when I got of truck, or was wrestling with wrapping fruit trees. 

So I searched in the dark with a flashlight. I searched in the day light. No joy. I figured that if it fell on the ground, one of our two new puppies may have found it and was using it as a new chew toy.

On Monday, I cancelled all my cards, except for one (when I told the wife on Sunday I would have to cancel all my cards, K6 spoke up and said, "Not all of them", and handed me one of my debit cards I had loaned him days earlier!)

I went to town and ordered a replacement driver's license, and was contemplating the hour drive to nearest military base to replace my ID card.

Monday night, K8 and I moved some big bales of hay out to various paddocks for the cows and sheep. When I got back to barn I noticed I had lots of cow manure on my tires, so I decided to drive around the parking lot and front yard to clean them off.

As I was driving along the garden fence line, I noticed some green paper in the grass...

...I knew I hadn't planted ten dollar bills, so I slowed down...

...pretty soon I pass a $5 bill and receipts, so I'm thinking, "Those darn puppies did get my wallet!"

As I passed the $20, I saw the plastic Sam's Club card, and knew the mystery was solved. After parking tractor and picking up the money and various receipts, I searched for the wallet and the rest of the plastic cards. No joy. What the heck?

Tuesday afternoon, Patty (the spotted Catahola puppy on the right) got herself stuck climbing thru the garden fence, quite a way down from where I had found the money the previous night. One of the kids heard her whining and got there before me, and this is what I saw when I arrived. The canvas wallet was chewed up, and my driver's license and military ID had some teeth indentations, but all the plastic cards, which I had cancelled, were undamaged...now useless, but undamaged.

Darn puppies. Never a dull moment here on the Wanch.