The Dog Blog: April 2017

Monday, April 17, 2017

Losing her harness

I DIDN'T HAVE A CAMERA WITH ME TODAY,
SO I'M USING AN OLD PHOTO AGAIN.

When we first got Dixie my wife Holly bought her a small harness befitting a 19-pound beagle.

Months later, Dixie had gained weight and I bought a bigger harness. It didn't fit perfectly, but it went around the middle of a 27-plus-pound beagle.

She's tried mightily to get rid of both harnesses, and she's gotten out of the second harness twice. In fact, she did it so well that we can't find the bigger harness (and we've looked everywhere but the yard; I'm sure she had it on when we came in).

So we went back to the smaller harness, which doesn't really work. Holly's talking about heading to Walmart to get yet another harness.

Which means we'll probably find that second harness she wiggled out of.

NOTE: Holly bought Dixie a comfortable-looking harness, and we'll see how it works. (She's lost some weight, and the comfortable harness is too big for her.)

UPDATE: Dixie lost her harness again yesterday. She was hooked to her line outside when she wiggled out of her harness. Later, a neighbor carried her to our carport door and asked my wife Holly if we had a three-legged beagle.

Obviously, we did. She's lying behind me, without a harness. We need to find one that fits better.

• Dixie gave me a few moments of panic

• Dixie got loose again

• Oh, no; she got out of the yard again

• Help from a neighbor

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com TWITTER: EDITORatWORK

MORE ENTRIES FROM THE DOG BLOG

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• YIP! YIP! The stereo-sound huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

EDITOR@WORK BLOG ENTRIES

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

BLOG ENTRIES BY TOM GILLISPIE

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

ANECDOTES BY TOM GILLISPIE

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer OUTTA there!

BLOG ENTRIES FROM THE AUTO RACING JOURNAL

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

Saturday, April 15, 2017

I DIDN'T HAVE A CAMERA WITH ME TODAY,
SO I'M USING AN OLD PHOTO AGAIN.

Dixie and I had our own Good Samaritan helper today when we were taking our walk. Dixie got her leash tangled in a neighbor's bush just as our mail lady pulled up to the mailbox behind me.

The mail lady was trying to give me the wrong mail when she realized that Dixie was stuck and I was struggling to unhook her. So she got out of her jeep-like vehicle, took the end of the retractable leash and went down and extricated Dixie.

Then she spent two or three minutes petting Dixie and talking nice to her.

Dixie was thrilled, and I was happy.

Then the helpful mail lady drove along and put our mail in the right box.

• Woof! (translation: Go away, kid; you bother me)