Six Pack Attack

New puppy greets Geordie by jumping on him.

New Friend 1

After our encounters with the cranky terrier, I changed the walking route Toby and I take each day so that we could avoid trouble. Turns out, trouble has it in for us anyway.

Toby and I were nearly home after a beautiful early evening walk. Our path took us through the parking lot of one of the local churches. Normally church lots are empty on Thursday evenings, but this day some guy decided to use the lot as his own personal off-leash dog park. His pack of spotted monsters took one look at little Toby and flew over to growl at him and bite at him and even flipped him over. Poor Toby had no idea what to do. He was spinning around like crazy to make sure none of the monsters could attack him from behind.

Eventually the irresponsible human came over to try to bring back his dogs. None of them responded to his voice commands, and he resorted to yelling, hitting and kicking them. At least one of the dogs turned and bit him. After all that, he didn’t even utter an “I’m sorry” to us.

It is amazing how stunned you can be in a situation like that. I don’t know if I had had Dog-B-Gone spray on hand if I would have had the presence of mind to use it. I got Toby out of there as quickly as possible, not even thinking of getting the guy’s license plate until it we were already home.

The next day, I ran into a neighbor and told her about the attack. Her yard abuts a different church’s property, and she said that two days before she had found a guy running his dog off leash. She yelled at him that he had better put a leash on his pet. From her description, I think it was the same guy that I ran into the next day.

I am so irritated by these idiots. If you want to run your dog off leash, there is a dog park one community away. Just take them there. Of course, if this guy’s brood is as unfriendly to others as they were to Toby, he should keep them at home on a leash. Maybe train them a little so that they come when called.

A few years ago I remember seeing a bra advertised that would sense if person’s heart rate were elevated suddenly. If so, it would notify the police. I wonder if they have something like that in dog collars?

Black and tan brocade dog collar.

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Come to a happy place where dog attacks never occur, and all pups have a great time. Come to the MOTI (Museum of the Imagination) in Dream Our World! In it, the boys view the world of art from a canine perspective with a dash of humor and a lot of fun.

Dream Our World is available from Amazon.

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Toby Was Attacked

New puppy greets Geordie by jumping on him.

I am feeling lazy today, so I borrowed a picture from Geordie’s past to help illustrate Toby’s day.

My little Toby is a rather timid guy who has a deep and abiding affection for his girlfriend. Between her house and ours is a little terrier girl who has it in for Toby. Over the weeks, her behavior has escalated. At first she would just howl at him. Later she crossed the street to head-butt him and do some growling. Today she spotted us half a block away and chased after us before we could walk away. Her teen human chased after her, but this little pup is a terrier and won’t come when called. Ms. Crabby Puppy not only head-butted Toby and growled but bit him hard enough to make him yelp. No blood was drawn, but come on. This should not be happening.

Since Toby wasn’t hurt, I didn’t look into filing a report. Also, I didn’t have any third party witnesses to back up my claims. To Toby’s great dismay, we won’t be walking down that street any longer. This doesn’t guarantee us safety from the little dog, though. She was the one I walked home on the day of The Great Roundup, so she has been known to roam the neighborhood.

I guess Toby is going to have to make the ultimate sacrifice and find a girlfriend who lives on a different street.

Sad Cairn terrier looks out of door.

No one in the history of the world has ever been as sad as I am.

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To see Toby during happier, more carefree days, pick up a copy of Dream Our World. Dream Our World has been doing some exciting things lately, and I look forward to blogging about them soon.

Come read Dream Our World where art is viewed from a canine perspective, and Toby and Geordie enjoy a day of unsupervised fun!

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Casinos and Malls

Not my photo. Borrowed from public domain stock.

The local newspaper had an article about half a dozen stores closing at the nearby mall. My family went, hoping to catch some going-out-of-business deals only to find that most of the stores were already closed. They said the mall was a sad, empty place and that they did not want to go back.

Supposedly the casino that is negotiating for space in the mall is really happy about what is going on. I am not sure why. When the casino had been first proposed, one goal was to bring traffic into the mall complex in order to keep retail businesses alive. Now that two of the four anchor stores are gone, I can’t imagine that anyone will want to remain paying over-inflated rent there. I expect the few remaining store to close soon, too.

I am glad that last year I tried to stock up on everything I could to last me the rest of my forever. There are some items I simply do not trust to online purchases, and the local teeny-tiny Walmart doesn’t carry.

I am sad to see the days of in-person shopping gone not only for nostalgic purposes but for those who can’t afford phones for online shopping and payment.

My boys aren’t worried, but maybe they should be. What happens when PetSmart is online-only? Where will they go to catch up with friends and meet potential new siblings on Adoption Day?

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Casino Conundrum

Poker chips

Is it really a conundrum? Nah, but the alliteration sounds good.

A few weeks ago, planners in a nearby town started considering allowing a casino to be built in their failing mall. The hope was that it would help to revive the mall and the town with new jobs and new revenue.

Editorial columns in the local paper have been filled with letters reminding city leaders that casinos do not generate wealth, only redistribute it….and this area doesn’t have a lot to start with. To add another wrinkle to the plans, this past week one of the three remaining anchor stores in the mall announced that they are closing their doors. Yikes.

I know that this is part of economic cycles and that the nature of retail will change from generation to generation. That doesn’t stop me from panicking about not being able to find goods when I need them. I counted on Sears for sturdy cookware and outdoor lawn and gardening tools. The only B & M store left in this area is Walmart. Unless you are looking for stretchy tween leggings or oversized stuffed animal heads, you are going to be out of luck.

Two Cairn terriers sitting in the grass.

The boys are encouraging me to go to the Sears closing sale to stock up on whatever we might need to last us until B&M stores come back into fashion. Since that might never happen, we might need to buy a lot of stuff!

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Things We Take for Granted

Cairn terrier sitting with marigolds.

Toby visiting the new statue and enjoying the marigolds.

At mass this weekend, the topic of parish closings came up. It seems that with all of the scandal in the Catholic church, attendance is dangerously low (as is financial support), and there is a very real chance that we could lose our church. For some reason I had never considered this as a possibility.

Our church isn’t one of the oldest, but it has been around for 50 years. A lot of work has been done with building maintenance, improvements to the grounds and even adding a statue of the patron saint. Not only is it a big part of the community, but it is where dog people in the area meet to talk and exercise their pups. My boys grew up there and are known by everyone.

Since I have MCS, being in buildings with a lot of people wearing perfume and having cigarette smoke on their clothes is more than I can bear, so I haven’t attended mass in a good while. I still participate in as many other aspects of the community as I can, however.

I didn’t realize until today just how much I would miss it if our church weren’t here. I know a lot of other people are going through the same thing. October is the month when then count attendance in order to determine which churches are closed and which kept open. I am hoping to struggle through as many services as I can to do my part to keep this one open. I hope that most churches are able to weather this storm and continue to provide good things for their communities for years to come.

Good luck with yours!

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Need to distract yourself from being sad over things that are not in your control? Consider reading Poopiter! It is a fun little distraction with plenty of stories about these naughty pups.

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A Late Easter Post

Snowy night scene.

Robin's egg sitting on porch step.

What a difference from last year to this year! Last Easter brought a tiny robin’s egg to our step. This year brought 6″ of snow.

I happen to love these early morning, above freezing snows, so I wasn’t disappointed to wake up to a frosted wonderland. It is so magical to be outside in the cold, damp, fresh-smelling air. I am fortunate that my pups love this kind of weather as well. (Sorry. My battery died before I could get a better picture of the snow.)

On this morning, Toby was so excited to see the snow that he practically burst through the front door to get to it. I put him on his 50′ leash and just let him run and run as much and as fast as he wanted. Scratch that. There is no such thing as enough time in the snow to Toby. Geordie wasn’t quite as thrilled as his brother, but I was happy that he got to see another snow.

It is still hard on me knowing that this will be my little boy’s last birthday and his last snowfall. It is the natural course of events, but it is still hard. I have been trying to give him everything he could possibly want, but instead of making a happy pup, I have created a tyrant. Geordie was always strong willed, but now that he realizes that I won’t push him, he is taking advantage. Will I stop? Of course not. An obnoxious pup is a small price to pay for allowing myself to feel that I’ve done everything I can for him.

I am nowhere near finished telling stories of the times we have spent together. You can catch up on what we’ve been doing with out latest book Poopiter.

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A Spot on the X Ray

Cairn terrier sits surrounded by Christmas toys.

I am still so upset that I don’t know how to process the information yet. Real Life Bitey went to the vet today, and they found a spot on his lung. If it weren’t for an occasional cough, I would say he was in great health. He is very active and playful and everything a pup should be.

The vet had to send the X ray out to be read, so it will be several days before there is news about the spot. It could be pneumonia (they gave him antibiotics just in case) or it could be something worse.

If you have a spare prayer for us today, we would really appreciate it.

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