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Thanks for your posts about life going on! - This was a pretty bad day for morale here at home! I need all the fabulous stories about rallies, new dogs, flower beds and all that.

I am pretty exhausted, but peace and normalcy has returned to my home. My friend and her daughter who were here are really 'emotional' people! - All highs and lows, and while I watch this stuff and feel pretty overwhelmed and speechless, they shriek and cry. Not a judgment about that, just acknowledgement that my Norwegian Minnesotan ancestry tends to be more emotionally constipated, and can't handle all this dramatic expression!

And there were just so many animals! In addition to all my own and the new kitten, she has two Jack Russels, one older dog and one very young one who is nice except for his complete refusal to be caught. He darted out the door, through my hotwire fence and he was *gone*. I had to chase him when he took off running. next door, into the street, where ever the little demon wanted to go! Darting around, back and forth! Needed a tranquilizer gun (or worse)! I tied a 20 foot line on him when we finally got him caught and said the line was not to come off while he stayed in my home. I don't want to be present when the little twit gets run over. That is their cross to bear not mine. I can't catch the %&#$*!$ little snot, but I can step on that line when he whizzes by!

He isn't a bad dog, but her husband's method of 'teaching' him to *come* is to call him, and when he doesn't come (which is always, now) run him down and beat the crap out of him. Now "come" means "Run for your life because here it comes"! My friend says, "he just needs to be trained" and I said, no dear, he is well trained. He has been trained that for whatever reason, you guys will from time to time yell "come" to indicate you are about to run him down and beat the crap out of him. I showed her how to try to fix him, the dog wants to do the right thing, but he runs out of survival instinct. I told her that her husband needed to know that he caused this, and that no matter what, a dog never gets a beating for coming to you. Yes, even if you have chased him for two miles before he allows himself to be caught, he gets praise for being caught. You can't correct the running by punishing him only when it stops. The dog has no idea what 'come' was supposed to mean, only what they taught him it means. Sorry for venting all this to you... It really ticked me off to chase the little twit for half an hour in traffic.

I gave her two hours worth of advice whether she wanted it or not.... The most important of which was to leave that line trailing behind him for the foreseeable future. If he hangs himself on something, at least you can catch him.