The case of the disappearing dogs

The weirdest thing happened this morning.

I left for work at my usual hour, and about an hour and a half later, Favourite Man ducked out of the house to go get electricity at a nearby shop. When he came back my dogs were sitting at the front gate of the complex.

Now this is where it gets weird.

The dogs live in a high-walled yard at the back of the house. There is no way for them to get out. The only way would be through the back door, through the house, through the front door and out the closed gate - which one of them can't fit through. Only then would they end up inside the complex, waiting for the electric gate to open and show them freedom.

So they either got out over the neighbour's wall, or through the house. There's no other way for them to get to where they were.

Trouble is, we can't figure out how it happened.

I didn't open the back door this morning. Favourite Man didn't either. I don't know if they were in the back yard when I left for work, as it was too dark to tell. No-one came in through the house and let them out, that we know of - the back door was still locked when Favourite Man checked and anyone coming through the front would be both seen and heard - there's nothing missing in the house either. There are no boot marks on the walls of our yard or the neighbours, and the security guard across the road saw nothing. If a stranger had lifted them over the wall, they would have bit him. We would have heard barking if someone had even tried. They can't jump the walls - they're too high. They can't dig under them - it's all bricked up.

So how did they get out?

And even more frighteningly - why?

There's one explanation I can think of. If you want to rob a house, you first disable the alarm. Take the dogs out the back yard and you have easy access to that part of the house, provided the back door is left unlocked (there are no windows near ground level except for the barred kitchen one) and you can escape security guard notice.

But again... how?! If someone grabbed them they'd have resisted. Favourite Man got chewed up putting them back - and they know him!

Needless to say, we're on high alert now. We're keeping an eye on the yard to see if anything else weird happens. And making sure the house is locked up tight at all times.