We had a bit of an adventure this morning: I was out front working in the yard when I heard a car honking as it drove by. Looked up and saw a dog in the road. (I should mention at this point that I live on a busy road with a 45 mph speed limit.) He had a collar with a tag, and though he seemed scared, he let me approach and acted really happy to meet me.
He was a big puppy, very sweet and so squirmy that I couldn't get a look at his collar. So I carried him back to our yard and looked at the tag. Which gave his address as the house across the street. D'oh! I got the leash out and took him back across the street. (Much to the confusion of poor Jane, who thought she was going to go out when she saw the leash.)
No one answered at the door even though there were two cars out front, so I took the puppy back across the street to our yard, got the phone number off the tag and called the neighbor. Then Georg and I spent the next half-hour or so trying to manage Puppy Fun Time! The puppy was frantically excited about being in a new place! with new people!! and another dog!!!
Jane, on the other hand, was none too happy about all this. She acted excited and played with the puppy for about half a minute. Then she realized that this was a strange dog in her yard, jumping on her, playing with her people and wearing her leash no less. After that she parked herself right in front of me and barked at the puppy if he tried to get attention from either me or her. I spent my time scratching Jane's head and telling her "I love you best," and distracting the puppy when he tried to play with her.
The problem was the puppy didn't understand Jane's signals at all. She would bark a quick "back off!" at him, and he would half-crouch down right in front of her and yelp his head off. I guess he thought, "wow, she's making noise! I can do that too! Hey! Hey! Hey!"
The funniest part was every time the puppy would pee, Jane would go right over and pee in the same spot. Like she was saying, "No way, this is my yard! And it smells like me! Not you!"
Keeping an eye on the dogs meant no more yardwork for the moment, so Georg went out to get lunch. A few minutes later the puppy's owner came home and got the dog. He said they had the puppy in an outdoor pen with a flimsy barrier, and it had never tried to break through it before. To his credit, the neighbor seemed horrified and I feel pretty confident that it won't happen again.
After the neighbor and puppy left, I took Jane for a quick ride as a reward. She really was good about the whole thing. Extremely tolerant of a bouncy, jumping puppy in her space who did not understand her communications. I was in my filthy gardening clothes and shoes so I didn't take her out of the car. I did stumble onto another entrance to the Eno Park which I'd never seen before. Maybe tomorrow morning we'll go walking there.
Also, I drove by the home of the chief judge at my precinct! I know it was her house because there was a (temporary) sign out front with her name and an arrow pointing to the house. The sign kind of looked like the signage at the polling place, and I wonder if it's there so the board of elections can find her to deliver supplies and equipment before Tuesday. Although I thought the chief judges had to pick everything up. Maybe the sign was just a coincidence.
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