the beer in the coolie was left on the porch a couple of nights ago– even I don't drink before 8am

There's a black cat in our neighborhood who likes to get things going in the mornings. He slinks down the street from Midland and comes to the edge of my yard to see if Blue and Gertie are on the porch. Of course, they’re always on the porch at this time of day. They're waiting on the cat.

The cat comes to the edge of the driveway just close enough so that one of them can get a good look at her. She is fully aware of the fact that Blue and Gertie can’t jump the fence, that they are restrained, so to speak, so she waits and swishes her tail back and forth until she gets at least one of the dog's attention.
Blue has several different barks. I always know when the UPS or Mailwoman are at the gate because of the furiously urgent sound of the bark. It's different from The Cat's in the Driveway bark, which is more in the frantic category.

In this bark Blue becomes indignant. His entire body springs into action. He engages all four paws jumping vertically, just a fraction of an inch off the ground, whoof!whoof!whoo!whoof!whoof!whoof!whoof!

The hair stands up on a ridge all the way down his back. His bark is frantic. He shoots desperate glances at me as if pleading for help. He dashes back and forth from one end of the porch to the other. I almost hear him asking me questions: “Can you believe that black cat? She’s in our driveway again?"

Blue has three stations on the porch. One is by the St. Francis statue at the south end of the porch, one in the middle and one at the far north end, which is where the fence is.

Blue with his head peeking through his own personal hole in the fence.

The black cat ignores Blue's barking until it reaches a certain decible, a certain hysterical determination only the cat understands. It says, "This dog means business."

Whereby the cat rises to all fours, lowers her ears, shifts her shoulders into slink-mode and pitter-patters quietly across the street to my neighbor's house where she will prowl back and forth under her bird feeder.
They watch the cat for a while and bark at it even though it is in my neighbor’s yard across the street.Whoof!whoof!whoof!whoof!whoof!whoof!

When at last the cat-threat has passed, Blue will rest with his chin on my legs.

I love my dog.