An Uneventful Year!!

In what my niece, Toni Chase had called an average year, her husband, Dave Chase found a way to have a few adventures in 2025. Dave is a very optimistic kind of man, and he said it was a fun year with all the Pickle ball, golf, softball, and a new favorite…online Cribbage which he came in first place for the summer session. If only my Uncle Bill could have known Dave…he would have loved him. Uncle Bill wanted to figure out a way to play “long distance Cribbage” when I was a kid. We never got that done. Uncle Bill would have been ecstatic…if he had known how to use a computer.

Dave spent a lot of time on the water, opting to fish the river in Big Horn Canyon rather than their normal area…the good old Platte River. He went a handful of times, because it was such good fishing. Then, in March, Dave made the annual trip to watch the NCAA basketball tournament held at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado, and took in some skiing at Ski Loveland (somewhere in Colorado near Breckenridge).

Dave didn’t do much socially in April, but once when he was on his way to the dog park when he saw a marmot running across the road right before he inched to the stoplight on CY and Outer Drive. Toni tells it best, so I’ll leave this part in her words, “He quickly slowed down, hoping the light would hurry up and turn red so that the poor little thing could get to the field before getting hit… The light turned red and the marmot was gone. Dave figured it must have made it across the road, so he continued his way to the park (about a half block away). When he got to the park, he let the dogs out as he always does but this time, the dogs didn’t go running as they usually would. Instead, they made a B-line for the front of the car. They started sniffing around the tires and along the fenders and grill like they were part of some super K9 unit. They were coming up short so they both went underneath the car and tried sticking their heads over the splash shield. All the sudden Dave said they spotted something that caused them to go into a barking, clawing melt down. Dave and all the other pet owner started investigating what was causing such a stir. Dave silently hoped he hadn’t hit the marmot after all. He tried peering underneath the car but didn’t see anything. A crowd of dog walkers had started to gather and began their own investigation.

An older, rather suspicious man said to Dave “I think we need to pop the hood” (I wish I could have seen the look on Dave’s face lol). So, Dave reached through the window and engaged the hood lift keeping eye contact with the man. Dave walked to the front of the car and slowly started to lift the hood (the dogs were still going crazy; spectators were nonchalantly pretending to have business near the car all the while). Dave got the hood about halfway up when all of the sudden Biscuit let out a high pitch howl. Both Dave and his new detective friend caught a glimpse of a large brown furry creature poking his head up from the back of the engine block. They both jump back and the hood starts to inch to a close, so Dave rushed forward to prevent it from closing. He slowly started to lift the hood again; his arm extended to its maximum reach. The suspicious detective man who was even further back was bent forward to see if he saw what he saw. As the hood went up a little more, the dogs saw it too. It was the marmot. And when he (or she as it turns out) saw the dogs she ducked back down and wouldn’t come back up. This went on for about fifteen minutes, so Dave called me to head his way. He told me to bring a spray bottle. When I got there the dogs were out of control. Dave told the suspicious man that he was going to lower the hood and run the dogs home with me, hoping that the marmot would just crawl back out once it knew the coast was clear. The man told Dave “Ok, I’ll keep working on getting it to come out while you’re gone” (lol can you imagine). Dave just shrugged, jumped in the truck and we headed back to the house to drop off the dogs then went back to the park.

When we got there, the park was empty. The hood of his car was closed, and the water bottle was sitting on the driver’s seat. We figured the marmot had made his escape. So, Dave jumped in the car and we went back home. When we got there the dogs were sound asleep. They didn’t even get up to greet us. We started settling in when all the sudden Crickets head popped up then Biscuits. They both focused their sight at the wall, then out of nowhere they went into hysteric again and took off for the garage And out the door to the driveway where Dave’s car was parked. Unbelievably, the marmot was still taking up residence.

We couldn’t get her to come out for anything. This went on clear past nine. We had to barricade the dogs in the bedroom for the night. When we got up the next morning, both dogs were chomping at the bit to get out. The minute I opened the door they went straight for the garage. I opened the garage door thinking there is no way that marmot is still there. I was wrong. This story goes on and on but to try and make it short, we ended up calling one of Daves friends at Game and Fish. The friend/game warden came to the house and went to work pulling out all his bags of tricks. But he had no better luck than we did so he called another game warden to the scene, and if you think the Looky-Lou’s at the dog park were bad, try imagining our neighbors observing 2 game wardens searching our car. In the end it took a garden hose and the release of Biscuit and Cricket (the makeshift herding dogs) to finally got her out.

Our story ended there. The first game warden drove her up to the mountain and released her. Or so he thought…she ended up in his truck…as it turned out she was ready to give birth and was looking for a place to do so with some privacy. She wasn’t about to let him force her out…but that’s the game warden’s story.

Other than that, they took a trip in May to Florida and did some fishing on the Gulf. They spent some time in Tampa at the aquarium and around Saint Petersburg. They spent a lot of time around town and went to numerous concerts in the park. They did some hiking in the snowy range and spent a couple weekends in Centennial at the cabin with the kids, Jane, and Dave’s cousins, Chuck and his wife, Chris. Dave took another fishing trip in Colorado on the South Platte River, and they went to Yellowstone at the end of September to see the fall colors. Other than that, Toni says it was a pretty uneventful year. An uneventful year…seriously!! That statement makes me laugh, because there was little that was uneventful in this story. Nevertheless, Dave and Toni just take it in stride and keep going. Today is Dave’s 65th birthday. Happy birthday Dave!! Have a great day!! We love you!!