A morning walk gone bad

This is apparently what you get for getting an early start on the day. Usually Penny and I take a walk around 8 in the morning, and then I either head into work and she sleeps, or work from home and she sleeps. We take a 1 mile loop around the neighborhood, smile and say hi to the other walkers going the same loop the other way, enjoy the out of doors before it gets too hot to enjoy. It is typically uneventful, possibly a squirrel to chase or a blue skink, but calm.

This morning, we went out closer to 7:30, and we met the one mean, aggressive dog in the neighborhood, who also has somewhat incompetent owners. We were walking down one side of the street, and I saw an older couple walking what looked like an older black lab and a younger, stripey mutt walking toward us on the other side of the street. I raised a hand and said hi, as is customary in the neighborhood. The man responded in kind, but the younger dog started growling and making the weird, whiney noise some dogs make when they raise their hackles.

 I saw the woman walking him stop and crouch down beside him, looking like she was holding him tightly. Penny was walking calmly, pretty much ignoring the dog, so we just kept walking. We've had a couple rescue dogs in the neighborhood whose owners do the same thing, where they stop, make the dog sit, and kinda sit with the dog until the other person passes by. Heck, I did it with Penny for a while when we first got her and she still had her street-dog nerves.

Just as we passed them on the other side, I glance over to see how the other dog is doing because he's still really growling, only to see him slip his choke collar and come at Penny. His owner starts screaming at me to "pick her up!", I'm trying to put myself between the dog and Penny while pulling Penny to me so I can pick her up (the other dog was maybe three times her size), so poor Penny ends up getting choked herself until I finally get her up in my arms and the owners come over to grab the dog. The man of course still had to hold onto the black dog, who wasn't too happy by this point, so as quickly as I can I just walk away, still carrying Penny.

I put her down about half a block down when I couldn't see them anymore. I was shaking, and Penny was coughing a little, but by the time we were half way around the loop, she was acting like nothing happened, and I was still shaking. I checked her out when we got home to make she wasn't hurt. I got a few scratches through my clothes that didn't break the skin, but we were both basically unhurt, somehow.

Penny's been quieter today, and a little skittish, and I temporarily lost the ability to do basic math (I tried to pay a $34 tab with three twenties. I had to stare at the twenty the cashier was trying to hand back to me for a good 30 seconds before I comprehended why she was trying to give my money back). I wish that I had gotten the name of the owners, but that "run away from the dog trying to bite you and your dog" instinct is seriously strong. I can probably find out from the other walkers if I really want to, but in the meantime I got a good harness with a handle so if we run into them again, I can easily scoop Penny up without choking her.

Mostly, at this point in the day, I wish that dog owners wouldn't buy choke collars. They are very hard to use correctly and very very easy to use incorrectly. On a dog that is already borderline aggressive, if you use it on them everytime they see person and growl, you are teaching them that new person = getting choked. And of course if you release the tension on it, they can easily get out of it, as this dog did.

We won't be taking walks at 7:30 anymore, I think.

Surpise Gardening

Our front yard is, quite frankly, a disgrace. We bought our house in winter, so we pardoned the yard for looking dreary. We decided to wait and see what bloomed come spring and summer last year, because everything in North Carolina bursts into bloom eventually. 

Nothing bloomed except one staunch stand of  gladiolas. A variety of weeds sprung up. Dirty got washed away and we got to experience the power of erosion. Dear Husband was able to keep most of the grass mostly alive, but the large 'natural areas' that are nominally my arena were  and are terrible. 

That ugly, scraggly azalea is the only thing that should be there.

Of the green things, pretty much none of it is supposed to be there. 

I have bad luck when it comes to most plants. I killed a mint plant once. You can't kill mint with fire, but I did with my amazing plant-killing powers. 

But I thought I might be able to keep shrubs alive. They are already fairly sturdy when you buy them, so as long as I got ones that weren't too condition picky, I should be fine. I bought a few test shrubs a couple of weeks ago and they have been doing fine. Japanese privet is  perfectly happy in my strange clay-and-rotten-mulch soil.

Yes, clay, like the stuff you make pots out of in art class. 

A little cleaning and firing from a pinch pot. 

Dear Husband has deplored this state for some time, but knowing nothing about gardening, felt he couldn't really do anything about it. 

So while he was at a conference last night and today, I made a couple runs to the Home Dopey, as my dad calls it, or the Home Despot, as my husband calls it. The first run I got 6 japanese privet plants, and on the second run I got 6 more, plus a long handled digging spade, because short handled edging spades are not the tool to attack clay or roots with. 

Penny helped keep me company, and dig test holes for roots and rodents.

Yes, her entire head is underground in that photo. 

I planted 10 of the 12 plants (roots + rain stalled the last two). So now our front  yard looks like this

The plan is to have them grow into a nice hedge to line the driveway and help keep the erosion at bay. These will start the process, and if I like how it's going I'll continue it all along the driveway, which will take another 18 plants or so. The next step will be  to cover everything in a layer of pine needle hay, which will hide/kill the weeds and help the privets grow (fingers crossed). 

Dear Husband will be home from his conference soon, and I can't wait to see the look on his face. 

Cute Dog, Weird Dog.

Penny is quirky. A lot of her quirks line up pretty well with ours (strict adherence to schedule, love of cuddling and watching tv in the evening) and some of them are just weird.

Especially for a dog.

Seriously, what self-respecting dog sleeps on their back?

Or worse, uses their paws as hands to play with a toy while on their back?

Did not notice when I took the video, but my husband was unintentionally providing background music

What dog does this? I have never seen or heard of this. And she doesn't just do it will nice floppy toys like this beaver/squirrel thing that once squeaked. She also does it with her ropes, her rawhides, and her bouncy Kong snowman thing

Note, right around the two second mark how she drops it, and bats it back into her mouth.

This cannot be considered normal behavior right? Kinda cool, but really? What dog does this?