A hole in the blogosphere

A punch in the guts, and a major kick in the financial pants.

Monday afternoon here I am, working away when my cell rang.  It was Chris, he'd stopped to mow the lawn.  I had been wondering about him, I hadn't seen him in a couple of weeks and was getting a little pissed because I always prepay him to look after the yard.  Anyway...

Him: Deb, it's Chris.  Why is your yard gate wide open?

Me: What the heck are you talking about?

Him: I just stopped by to mow the lawn and saw that the gate was open so came in to use the phone to call you and ask what the heck is going on.  Did you leave the front hall closet open?

Me: No.  What else is going on?  (I could hear the dogs going nuts in the background).

Him: The dogs' room door is closed tight.  Did you leave it like that?

Me: Nope, what else do you see?

Him: Looks like someone's been in your room.  Did you leave the door to your armoire open?

Me: Nope.  What else? 

Him: The master bath window is wide open.  Let me look some more.  Ah gees, it looks like your laptop is gone.

Me: I'll be there in an hour.

Before I continue, a couple of things. 
The dogs are usually in an ex pen in the spare bedroom to keep Jazz from going through the living room window at people walking down the sidewalk.  There's enough room in there that they can move around a bit or stretch out to sleep.  They willingly go into it and quite often they'll beat me down the hall after I've finished my morning routine and they know that's it's time to go to work.
Chris has a key to my house because he uses my mower and the key's the same as the house key and sometimes he shows up when I'm not home.  We've become good enough friends that I trust him to go in, do what he needs to do and lock up after himself when he's done. (use the toilet, get a drink, etc.  when he's there when I'm not home, he even lets the girls out to stretch their legs before I get home)

I hate to admit it, but I did a bad thing on the way home.  I got to considering Chris's past, how long he'd been missing, and thought how coincidental that the day he shows up, my house was broken into.
When I got there he was mowing the front and shut the mower off as soon as I pulled up.  He followed me into the house and we went around and had a look.  He told me that he hadn't touched anything and showed me what was what.  I got to the dogs' room and the door was still shut but not latched and the girls were still in the ex pen.  It not being fair to them to leave them locked in there, I let them out and put them outside to do their business.  I had another look around and realized that not only was my laptop gone, but so was my brand new camera.  And I said a very, very bad word.  As a matter of fact, more than one. 
I called the non-emergency police line and dispatch said that they'd send someone over.  While we were standing there Chris said "Deb, look at me."  "Seriously, look at me."  So I did.
He then said "I know how this looks.  With my history, and being gone for a while, I know how this looks.  But I did NOT do this."
I didn't say anyhting for a while and he said "I did NOT do this and I'll stay here and give a statement to the police when they get here.  You are the kindest, most generous person that I've ever met.  I would not do this to you."
My head was telling me that maybe, just maybe he did, but my heart was telling me that no, he didn't.  He's been with me for a year now and has never shown me that he would do something like that to me.  He seems embarrassed when I pay him for anyting extra that he does that's outside of what we agreed to in the first place.  That, and I like to believe in the inherent goodness in people.  And so I said, "I believe you didn't do it."
The cop came, said that it looked like the robber(s) had worn gloves and made some suggestions, took our statements and then left.  One of the suggestions was putting a block in each of the windows (which Chris looked after before he left) to keep them from being slid open and another was to leave the dogs loose in the house while I was gone.  Yup, I'm thinkin' so too.  The girls were so pissed about someone being on their territory that they had pushed the ex pen from the back of the bedroom right up to the door.  Obviously the asshat that broke in was scared enough that he slammed the door on them, grabbed what was handy, and bolted out the front door.  The ex pen is now stretched across the front of the couch to keep Jazz off it and I'm pleased to say that she hasn't even tried to get around it.  I also apologised to them for not being able to do their job (you can stop with the eyerolls Dad).
PT allowed as how it was a shame that the only 2 things that I really enjoy doing now that I don't have anymore horses were taken from me.  Blogging and taking pictures.  And so, there's a temporary hole in the blogosphere.
Will try to get to y'all in downtimes at work.