Late last night Clyde and Stout got very excited and wanted to go out front. This is usually a sign that Honey (neighbor dog) or some other creature is visiting. Sure enough, there was a scrappy little Boston Terrier out front, and he immediately started scrapping with Clyde and Stout. Play time.

I noticed he had a collar, and he let me get close and pet to him to look at it. No tags. Just a well worn leather collar. I thought he might be visiting with some neighbors who were still up and about, but no one called him. I let the dogs play and run around, but soon it was bed time. What to do?

I decided to put him on a leash and walk around the neighborhood thinking someone might be calling or whistling for him. I thought if we walked by his house, he might pull me in that direction. Very quiet evening. No whistles or calls. Eventually he did get very interested in a house as we passed by it. Honey’s house (which backs up to ours.) I let him off the leash, and he made a mad dash down the driveway into the darkness of the garage side of the house. I figured perhaps he was visiting them. After a minute or two, there was no sign of the Boston, so I cut through to our house.

There he was at our front door. He had made a mad dash “home.”

He was a very friendly dog, but liked to hop up on things and scratch at windows and doors, so I did not want him in the house. I thought about just letting him stay outside and maybe he would find his way home, but I didn’t want him getting hit by a car like Charlie. So I set up the wire dog kennel, got him to settle down in it on the screen porch, and I slept downstairs on the couch to listen out for him. Our dogs whined more than he did, and then we were all asleep.

The next morning, I let the three dogs out to play. I made two “DOG FOUND” signs and taped them on the stop signs at the two neighborhood exits. It was a good thing I had the day off. Within a couple of hours, Dooley’s mom called. She lives around the corner. We had walked right by his house! She had looked for him until 11 pm but never thought he would have come to our side of the neighborhood. (I think Honey was the draw.) She suspects that since Dooley had so much fun with us, he might come by and visit again. At least I know how to get him home… and what to call him.

I liked Dooley. We used to have a Boston Terrier on Silvastone that I thought was a neat dog. Susan W. says they “wheeze” too much because of their shortened snouts. He did some wheezing on our walk. I was ok with it.

… which is a good thing.

This morning, mad dash to airport, out to car w/ Claire to drive her to school. Spun around outside of car hearing Clyde barking loud. Couldn’t tell if he was inside or out, didn’t want him jumping the wireless fence, went inside, found him, told him to hush, back to car, got in started up, backing out of garage about six feet “clunk”. Brake.

Uh-oh… luggage?

Pulled forward. Jumped out, middle of driveway briefcase laying down about 3 feet back, taller roller luggage standing about 6 feet back.

Ugh. Ran over my briefcase (with gas tank not wheels). Had put down with suitcase *before* opening trunk! Dang!

Leather scraped on concrete, flap open, corner of laptop a bit scraped. Otherwise working fine. Shoe polish will cure the leather briefcase. Maybe emery cloth on the aluminum.

I ran over my Mac.

Bad dog.

Kathy, Claire, Kelly and I took the dogs on a walk up to the neighborhood lake last night. We wanted poor Clyde, who has been so hot, to have a chance to go for a swim. Clyde has no problem walking right into a body of water and swimming. There were no geese out on Holly Lake last night. He often will swim toward them.

Stout would love to join Clyde, but he hates water. He’s watching in the snapshot below. As soon as Clyde would climb out, Stout would jump all over him.

I threw a stick out on the water, and like a true retriever, Clyde brought it back. He kind of looks like a white alligator!

I just came across Stout’s adoption papers dated 5/30/04. His name was Ralphie. He weighed 10 pounds. (He is now a healthy, strong 19 pounds.) He was described as a 1.5 year old “Terr X” that was tri-colored. Mary Springer was his foster mother. She was with the Society of Humane Friends of Georgia. Mary did a good job that day!

His age was a guess at the time. We decided that we would just say he was born the same day as Clyde so they could be the same age and have birthday parties together.

We have no idea where Stout came from. He was very skinny, but lively. Kathy thinks he may have been owned by a hair dresser and that he was in a house fire. He sounds the alarm any time there is smoke, and early on, he did not like the sound of a hair dryer. Perhaps the hair dryer set Ralphie’s house on fire.

Our poor dogs.

Since we’re not getting the paper right now (will resume 4-day service soon) the dogs do not get to “go get the paper” with my breakfast ritual. That means no cookie reward. So they stare at me wondering why we are not subscribing to the paper.

Instead, I read a magazine or on this past Tue a.m., I decided to read the news on my iPod Touch. I saw Mom’s email (the Touch gets Gmail… really a great way to read e-mail) and followed the link below, wondering if it would work.

Sure enough, the YouTube came up, I turned the Touch sideways, it filled up the screen, and I watched this hilarious bit, cracking up as I ate my breakfast.

The dogs just watched, not liking anything at all about this electronic communications revolution. How do they “go get the electrons”?

Thanks for sending mom. I liked “Egg Trick”, even if the dogs didn’t!

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On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 11:33 PM, Julie wrote:

This is 4 minutes, but it’s worth it.

> _Egg trick_ (http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/138148/detail/)

This one is for Susan…

What I really like about this is how simple it is (or seems to be.) A little girl, a video camera, and a book. There is some good editing and directing hidden behind the scenes, but it doesn’t show (which is one reason it is so good.) Did you catch the little girl whispering a key camera direction?

Jake is famous for his howling birthday singing. None of our dogs have ever howled until this morning. Kelly spent the night out with Madison (aka Dakota), and her radio alarm went off. I got up and turned it off. She has a lot of buttons on her alarm clock, and who knows what they all do. Not me.

About 30 minutes later, I was making coffee while Kathy and Claire still slept. Suddenly I heard a dog howling, and it sounded like it was coming from inside the house. I went upstairs and found Stout howling at Kelly’s alarm clock which was now making a deep mechanical BOOOOOP BOOOOOP BOOOOOP sound. The tone was such that Stout and the alarm clock were howling in harmony.