Eating my words

I'm sure you could tell that my post about my next door neighbor was mostly written in jest. I hope that is the case, anyway. He really is a great guy... but his dogs do bark all day. He moved in after Gaye moved out who moved in after Dan and Kristi left. I was on bed rest, so I had the pleasure of getting acquainted with them for about 8 hours a day while he was at work. They bark about every 5 minutes for the duration. I had considered leaving a bark collar anonymously on his front porch when he asked me one day, "Do my dogs bark while I am gone?" I was so relieved to tell him that they did until he said the only solution he could think of was putting them in the garage while he was gone. That seemed rather cruel, so I decided to just put up with it. It has been better now that I'm not in bed all day. Yes, they still bark- but I don't hear it quite as much.

Anyway, early this morning Tyler called to say that Russell had called him to ask if he could help him put his dog into his car because it was dying. Tyler is in Dallas, so I quickly hurried over to help. It was so sad! That dog was 14 years old. Russell is a bachelor and those two dogs are his life. I sat and rubbed the dog to comfort her while he backed the car up and helped him get her into his car, holding back a few tears of my own.

When I picked up the girls, I let them know what had happened. Emmaline was especially touched. She's spent some time with those dogs and has a soft spot for all animals. She talked about how sad it was for Russell, what a sweet dog she was... but without missing a beat added, "The only good thing is, I don't think Fanta (the other dog) will bark so much now." Now I don't feel so bad for thinking that.