Oh dear, I think we may be in trouble (again) over what was from our point of view was a very exciting evening security breach.  I think mum is being a tad unreasonable.  It started about midnight from what, if I remember correctly, was a passing local alley cat out for a midnight stroll, which took it a little close to the house.  This prompted a rush of adrenaline among the canine members of the household, we were after all just defending our property.  Unfortunately the hyperactivity continued intermittently for several hours until mum got very cheesed off and let us out to do a full security sweep of the garden.  As if we weren’t in enough trouble at this point, we failed to return after checking the boundaries.  After a significant period of time (and convenient deafness) we decided that we had better go back in.  At this point mum realised that our front feet and noses were covered in compost, so it became apparent that we had been playing in the sandpit and concede that maybe we should have cleaned our paws before coming in.