It’s been a while since I’ve ranted about Stupid Dog (aka Neutron). We have an electronic fence to keep our dogs in the yard. We installed it not long after Stupid Dog was gone all night and we found him with his leg caught in a fox trap not far from our home. Luckily, the leg wasn’t broken, but it was injured. He healed.
Last week Stupid Dog started crossing the line, and I couldn’t figure out why. I tightened his collar and thought it’d be OK to let him loose. And the Stupid Dog took off right out of our yard, and trying to catch Stupid Dog is worse than trying to catch a rabbit. When he realizes he is free, he completely gives up any recognition of his name or his owners that he ever had.
So I soon found myself tromping through a neighbor’s yard trying to catch stupid dog. As I walked through the backyard, I said loudly, "Neutron, you stupid dog!" And that’s when the neighbor, an elderly lady, yelled at me from her windown. "Don’t you dare swear!"
And I realized the lady didn’t realize I said Stupid because I said it in a tone that is usually reserved for swear words. And as I chased our Stupid Dog I hastily explained I hadn’t sworn, and that SD is practically the dog’s name. (Neutron/Stupid Dog by the way is a mini pin.)
When we returned home, I realized Stupid Dog’s collar wasn’t working. So I switched collars and Stupid Dog once again remains home. Even when he doesn’t want to. For instance, yesterday a neighbor’s dog was loose and in heat, and Stupid Dog wanted ever so much to chase after her and become her Friend. But the pesky fence kept sending him back into our yard. My children, feeling sorry for Neutron, gathered him up and brought him in the house.
Stupid Dog in the house when he wants to be outside is pretty much unbearable. He jumps and runs and whines and is annoyingly hyper, and he’ll walk all over you as he attempts to convince you to let him outside. It’s almost as if someone has hit his fast-forward button. Plus he was making noises we’d never heard from him before. At one point he made a horrible noise that didn’t sound like anything a dog could make. My husband thought it might have been one of the children. The poor dog’s heart was breaking. We’re so mean.
Plus, I still giggle whenever he gets shocked. Take that! I’d feel bad, but this is a dog that growls at me when I pet him.
Zeus? Our 100-plus pound lab stays in our yard most of the time, but when he wants to get out, he steels himself and runs right over the line. So he could very well have gotten a bit friendly with that female beagle yesterday. In fact, when he came in last night, he brought her with him. We wouldn’t let her come in. We have plans to buy a stronger collar for him.
***
There are black marks on the road where we live. I didn’t notice them. But my husband, who had been gone for four days noticed them right away, alerting him to a story I didn’t know had happened.
My children and Mom were walking along our road. Justin and Autumn were in front of my Mom. Justin was at the bridge when Autumn started walking back to where my mom was at. He decided to run from one side of the road to another. Without looking.
I don’t know how close the 18-wheel semi came to my 7-year-old boy.
My mom and his sisters yelled, and my son stopped.
The semi-truck blew its horn, and applied its breaks.
The tire marks are in the center of the road, straddling the yellow line.
And I try not to think about how differently it could have ended.
OMG! How are you not mentally ill over those tire marks??? What a scare!