The Noise From Below

As you have, hopefully, read earlier, our dogs Duke and Cadet are best friends and their own worst enemy. They seem too like getting each other into trouble. One evening in particular, my wife and I were watching TV in the living room and we heard a very loud bang coming from underneath the house. So, I looked out the back door window and saw Duke sitting by the door. Well, I figured that if Duke was in the back yard, so was Cadet, because 9 times out of 10 if one gets out the other is right behind him. So, I thought it might have been some old pipes or something to that effect, since our house is about 70 years old. I then went back to the couch and continued watching TV with my wife. Another 10 or 15 minutes goes by and I hear another bang coming from underneath the house. This time Duke is barking nonstop, which he normally doesn't do unless something is wrong or he wants inside the house. By this time it is starting to get dark outside, so I grab a flashlight and proceed to find out what exactly is going on underneath my house. I walk around to the crawl space that is located on the side of my house, still in the back yard, all while wandering what kind of animal I might have to fish out. I noticed that the metal plate that I have covering the crawl space has been knocked over, so I shined the flashlight up under the house and see a white streak go running by real quick. In the back of my mind I am thinking skunk, so I backed up a few paces. I get back down and shined the light again just as he is running full speed underneath the house and runs full force into the old copper pluming under the house, making a loud bang. Well, I was definitely relieved that it wasn't a skunk, but getting my dog out from under the house was a chore in itself. I think Duke was trying to tell on his buddy when he was doing all that barking. Now, both of them find a way to get under the house no matter how hard I try to keep them out.