Awwwwooooooo

With the wonders of Vonage, Chris and I are fortunate to have a US telephone number that rings in our home in Beijing. Most of the time it works really well, and it allows our family to call us easily and cheaply. Late night or early morning conference calls with the US are easier too because I can take them from home instead of the office.

Every now and then, though, we get an annoying random caller, usually at 2 a.m. Beijing time. These people never leave messages and probably are wayward telemarketers who are defying numerous "do not call" lists. When the phone rings in the middle of the night, everybody wakes up - including the dog.

This is the creepy thing about these experiences: Frankie will invariably begin to howl along with the telephone. Now, Frankie is not a vocal dog, so hearing him go Awwoooooooooooooo is bizarre. Stumbling out of sleep to a cacophony of digital music and a ghostly moan is not fun, especially in the wee hours of the morning. Hard to fall back after that, I tell you.