Did you Ever Figure Out How the Dogs Got in the House ??

No.

We've run several scenarios thru our minds, discussed them, reviewed our memories of the scene, etc, etc, etc.

We don't know.

We were both in & out of that room several times before leaving, but neither of us went outside thru that door. We are both 100% confident that the door was closed, completely. We are both also fairly confident that the door was also locked.

That being said, we currently believe this is the most likely scenario:

******************************

The dogs are sleeping in their makeshift doghouse, which is adjacent to the deck. We didn't get around to buildling them a proper one before it got cold, so it's made out of leftovers from renovating the house (ie. it doesn't look like a doghouse, it looks like a pile of scrap material).

A would-be intruder sneaks around to the back of the house, approaching the French doors on the back deck.

The dogs, sleeping in their well-insulated house, don't hear him.

Said intruder manages to get the door open.

The dogs, whose ears have been trained to listen for the sound of the doorknob turning, and especially for the click of the lock (this is the door we go in & out of when entering the back yard, the only door they are were permitted to enter the house thru, and the door thru which we feed them), hear the door being opened, and rush out of their house, leaping onto the deck, expecting us.

The would-be intruder freaks out at being ambushed by three dogs, two of which are rather large, and runs away before entering the house (we checked the house thoroughly for any missing items, nope).

But the damage is already done, in that the door is now open, granting all three dogs full access to roam the house, unsupervised.

******************************

It was actually the next day before this thought came to us, and by that time, in our frantic search to corral the dogs and find the cats, we had both gone in & out of the back door numerous times, destroying any possible prints that might have been left in the snow.

In short, we'll probably never know for sure.

We've come up with another scenario in which the dogs managed to get the door open themselves, which was our original theory, but... the longer we dwell on it, the more we realize that the chances of that happening are so very, very slim. You know, without them having opposable thumbs and all.

Don't want to say that it's impossible, that the dogs got in themselves, since we don't know for sure what happened, but it really looks like someone had to have opened our back door. And since we are both in agreement that we are absolutely certain that the door was completely shut (which really is enough to keep the dogs out), and we are both fairly certain that it was also locked (I'm actually a lock freak, and have been known to accidentally lock FireMan out of the house when he steps out side "just for a minute"), it really, really looks as if we may have had a would-be intruder that night.

I find myself wishing very bad things on this person. I know this is wrong. But... I'm just being honest.