Belle, formerly known as Shyla, still loves her blue puppy!


I was working in my side yard earlier in the evening when Cassie, my tattle-tale dog, started barking up a storm. I told her to quit because I figured it was just someone walking past the house, but I didn't look to see what was going on. I just kept on pulling up garlic mustard. But after a few more minutes, something made me look up. Instant panic set in as I realized there was only one dog in the back yard, not three. Gertie, and Belle, a dog I'm pet sitting, were both gone. Both are beagles. Actually, I caught a glimpse of Gertie in the side yard of the hillbilly house and called her but the little sh*t went the other way. Belle was my foster dog for a couple of months last winter. Then her name was Shyla.

Gertie, June 2005 Was this a harbinger of things to come?


To make matters worse, my cell phone was out of power and I couldn't find the land line phone so it took me a while to call the neighbors and ask for their help.

I grabbed all the slip leads I had, a couple more regular leads and a tub of treats and ran out the door. A couple of girls walking by said they had seen them - across the main road which is a block away - and thought the people in the gray house had them in their yard. The main road has 5 lanes and a speed limit of 45 which of course means the cars are going 55 or 60. My fear has always been that one of my dogs would get out and get hit. How they got across that road, I'll never know.

John's oldest son came out and I told him I didn't want to call the dogs if they were still across the street. So, we ran across the street and I actually held my hand out like a traffic cop to make the cars stop and they did! They probably saw the leashes and treats and figured I was some crazed dog person and they would have been right. The folks that lived in the gray house were standing in their driveway - one even had a leash - but said they couldn't catch them. They told me my girls had run toward the river, so I just cut through a couple of yards to the next street and started calling. Meanwhile, Tyler ran home to tell his dad, John, where we were.

I was walking up the street and calling and calling when the neighbor that lives in the hillbilly house drove up and asked for their names, etc. He even had a leash in the car.

A few minutes later, John drove up and said Tyler was walking along by the river and he would drive up the other way. I figured we had it covered with four of us but it was still awful. I finally decided to do more trespassing and just picked a yard at random to walk down to the river. I kept walking along the edge through other people's property. I figured, in for a penny, in for a pound. I knew some of the homeowners would understand, but others wouldn't. These aren't just ordinary homes on a river, some of them are multi-million dollar jobs which may not sound like much to those of you living on the coasts, but the average cost of a house in this city is still under $200k.

I finally met a fence so I walked back out to the road and who drives up with a big smile on his face? The neighbor from the hillbilly house. I could see Gertie sitting in the front seat next to him. When he stopped, I saw that Belle was in the back seat. I got in and just bawled. I think I almost strangled Gertie I was hugging her so tightly but she didn't seem to mind. Belle was so happy to see me that she was trying to climb over the top of my head!

Both of them were soaked and quite smelly, but I don't care. Gertie is happily sleeping under my chair and Belle is curled up in her little pink princess bed in her crate. Gertie is actually smiling in her sleep.

I had to fix the fence where they got out and in the process discovered another problem area so I fixed that as well. Of course, when I finally let the dogs out after I was done, Gertie made a beeline for that corner. What I don't understand, is why Gertie went toward the river. She never goes into the pond at the dog park. What's up with that? Was it just a case of following Belle? I'll have to be hyper-vigilant from now on I guess.

Tomorrow, the electric fence gets installed and the back corner of the picket fence is going to get fixed properly. Tying wire around a tree and adding a leash to the mix isn't going to hold for long.

Now that he's been so nice and neighborly, I guess I'll have to stop calling it the hillbilly house. I don't know how else to explain it though - I mean they built it in the B's backyard! However, I baked some Butter Cake to take to both neighbors tomorrow, if there's any left in the morning. It makes wonderful comfort food!