Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the post where I highlight reader’s comments, answer questions and generally just wrap up my week.

You Make Me Smile – March 6, 2016

Emma said, ” I love to sit in my front window and watch, but I often fall asleep there too.”

Do you have a bay window, or a window with a seat in it? Our old house had that and I do miss it.

Jan K said, “Luke and Cricket both love to lie on the top of the couch in the office and watch out the window. Sheba prefers to go outside on the deck and lie on the steps to watch the other side of the house from there. I guess they’ve got most of it covered!”

Sheba is like Sampson, if he had his choice, he’d lay out by the front gate or in the front yard and watch the world go by.

Cupcake said, “I watch out the window all the time. Who else will protect Mom from evil mail carriers, noisy lawn guys, deranged kids riding skateboards, the putt-puttering golf cart, and people walking by minding their own business? She’s lucky to have me.”

She sure is Cupcake, she sure is.

Taryn said, “My guys, and Wilson especially, have the neighborhood comings and goings down to a precise schedule. He knows when to get in the window to watch for his archrival, the akita from across the street. They hear the UPS guy from a couple blocks off!”

Aren’t they funny? They don’t have watches, but yet somehow, they just know!

Julie said, “There is a kitty across the street that comes up to our windows and it makes Cocoa crazy. She does not like kitties!!”

LOL it sounds like my guys. If the cat is in the house, most of the time they tolerate him well, but let us see a cat on our walk, or have a cat in our yard and all hell breaks loose!

Alexa88 said, “I often sit on the porch right beside lily. she will move right up to my side and lean on me. Like a big warm hug.”

Oh my, that sounds so wonderful. I love it when my dogs snuggle up to me.

Is It Just Me?

Taryn said, “I’ve had that happen many times. I’m actively trying to get out of the way and the DADO is actively trying to catch up. I eventually get grouchy, stop and sit my dogs, and let the ass pass. They get a nasty “my black dog is NOT friendly” snarl out of me and I get an ‘Oh, mine just wants to say hi, he’s so friendly……..’ If they continue to push it, they get what they get!

It’s so frustrating. You work so hard with your dogs and then clueless people just muck up the whole thing! With Delilah being such a large dog, I worry about her hurting a smaller dog. Although the animal control officer has told me that as long as she was on leash, she wouldn’t be in trouble. Still that’s a risk I’d rather not take, you know?

Lauranne said, “It is not just you I lost count of the number of times things like this happened to me and BD. One of my favorites was when I very obviously crossed the road to get away from a man and his dog and they decided to cross the road to come and join us just as I was passing a parked car leaving BD and me trapped…I think in the end I had no option but to turn tail and run.

Ugh, I hate that! I will dart into someone’s yard without a second thought. LOL I am constantly looking and plotting ways to get away from dogs/people on our walks. Just in case.

Emma said, “No, doesn’t happen to us much around here. Would love a video of you and Tigger jogging up hill, though!”

LOL one of these days I’m going to get that Go-Pro camera on me, so I can video it. I suspect a lot of people would subscribe to a YouTube channel with Delilah and her crazy antics.

Jan said, “There should be such a thing as Dog Rage with stories of DADO having awful things happening to them from responsible but deranged dog owners.”

Right? The sad thing is, it’s probably the dogs who end up paying for their owner’s stupidity.

Lexy said, “I used to run into that a lot with my neighbour’s (very very dog unfriendly) beagle. People seemed to think that because he was small and calm-seeming, that I was, I don’t know… lying about his being not friendly. He would literally play bow and act friendly right up until another dog was within teeth distance, and he shredded another dog’s ear once because his owner got surprised by someone sneaking up on them. When I ask someone if their dog is friendly, and they start with, “ummm… well…”, I don’t let Gwynn meet them. If your response isn’t ‘hells yes!”, then it’s “No, we don’t want to meet you”, i don’t need to know that your dog only likes black german shepherds who were neutered in the past 6 months, or get grilled about whether my dog is old/young/male/female/fixed/etc. I really want to know the end of your story! Because I really can imagine you stalking back down the hill, snapping “SIT” (and the dog listens, because you’ve got boss-voice on), and then telling the woman exactly what’s what.

LOL OH, if only I had the courage! I typically try NOT to have confrontations because my experience has been that most people really aren’t open to being educated about what they’re doing wrong.

Monika and Sam said, “Hahahah! I snorted chai all over my screen with the image of ‘lighting that woman up like a grill in springtime.” What a vision! After I stopped laughing, my reaction became WHAT THE [fill in the blank] IS WRONG WITH SOME PEOPLE?! Sheesh. And for the record, trust me running downhill is much harder on the knees plus the ‘brakes’ don’t work. at. all. because of this thing called inertia.”

Ba ha ha, I love when my humor comes across. Sometimes I’m just not sure if people are finding it funny or not. As for the downhill bit, I have to agree. I was thinking of that yesterday on our walk, I thought it’s easier to be dragged uphill, than down. 😉

Mary Ann said, “On the bright side, these things make for interesting blog writing and reading. :-)”

Well thank you, I try to make it entertaining. 🙂

Misty Shores Chesapeakes said, “Naw, not just you. I think most of us have been there and here is my theory…responsible pet owners notice the not so responsible pet owners more than the average person because we just can’t believe they walk upright.:-)”

I think your theory is spot on.

Jackie Bouchard said, “Ugh. This has happened to me a lot! I feel like turning around and yelling, ‘Are you BLIND? Can you not see that I’m exhibiting all the universal signs of trying to flee?!” Like, I’m speeding up, I turned and went a different direction, I keep glancing back at you then picking up my speed. WtH??”

Oh I hear you!! I want to scream, “Are you stupid?” But I’m usually running so fast I can’t talk. 😉

Dachshund Nola said, “My favorite thing about small dogs is that you can just pick them up and move on. People are dicks!”

That would be a great benefit to having a small dog. And you are right, people are dicks.

Meagan and Merlin said, “It’s not just you. I was walking Merlin on the foreshore and i see a couple with their tiny dog so i move out of the way to let them pass. Oh no they drag their dog over to mine and this little dog growls at Merlin and they said something along the lines of “it’s always like that” but they on purpose dragged their reactive dog to mine when they knew it was like that.”

Don’t you want to say, “Buy a vowel, Vanna! Stop trying to make your dog into something its not!”

KB said, “I certainly have met my share of clueless dog owners. Because Shyla can be so fearful, I don’t let her meet dogs who appear like they might be overbearing or aggressive. However, I can attest that I have no stories as funny as yours. I’m sure it was terribly upsetting while it was happening but you turned it into a hilarious story.”

I hear you and think you are wise to protect Shyla that way. And thank you, I try to shine humor on the crazy situations so other people with challenging dogs don’t feel so alone.

Barks and Bytes – March 10, 2016

For those that missed yesterday’s post, I had a brain fart and forgot to wrap up the story. LOL So, what actually happened was this….Once Delilah and I got out of the dog’s sight they stopped following us. Whether the dog lost interest or the person turned the dog around, I don’t know. I siriusly considered dropping Delilah at home and then going up to the park and punching her in the face.

Lauranne said, “Is it wrong that I am a little bit gutted that you didn’t go back and punch her in the face? She’s gotta learn somehow! :-)”

HELL NO! If you had written that post, I’d have wanted you to punch her too. LOL

Jan said, “I think a good face punch would have been in order. Negative reinforcement works well on stupid people.”

I want to like this comment a million fucking times!

Well that’s it for me folks, thanks for reading and have a wonderful weekend!

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