The Dog Blog: September 2017

Sunday, September 24, 2017

DIXIE AND ME

A kind neighbor helped me today.

I let Dixie out on her line for about 20 minutes, then went outside to take out a bag of trash. I looked up and saw a neighbor walking a three-legged dog up our driveway.

I immediately knew it was Dixie, who had gotten out of that blue harness you see in the photo at left.

He said, "This is your three-legged dog, isn't it?" I said it was.

He brought her up to me, and I let her into the house. I thanked him profusely and handed him back his retractable leash. He said it was OK; neighbors have helped him occasionally when HIS dog got out. I haven't been able to catch his dog, but I HAVE hollered to let him know where his dog was.

It's funny, but I write more about her getting loose than anything else. Why? We rarely walk anymore, and we haven't been to the dog park in months.

Related posts

• Dixie gave me a scare

• Dixie gave me a few moments of panic

• Dixie got loose again

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

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com TWITTER: EDITORatWORK.

Other entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2015)

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• OOH! OOH! The stereophonic 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 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

More 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

• Good Samaritan

• The PRESS cap and my friend Mike

• Watching TV

• No luck with Billy Sims

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!

Sunday, September 17, 2017

A tough year without Lady

MISS LADY MA'AM

Today is a sad one for me. Lady died this day last year, and I've mourned her every day since.

The day she died (Sept. 17, 2016), it felt like a great weight had been placed on my chest. I couldn't talk about her without my voice cracking, and she came to mind constantly. It was painful to look at photos of Lady.

The worst moment came when I went to the vet's office to pick up the box with her ashes.

We got our beagle Dixie 10 days later (she's lying behind me as I write this), and it's gotten progressively easier. The weight has been lifted from my chest, and I can think of Lady with fondness, not regret.

Still, I miss her. I miss her "huh-huh-huh" sound that was her approximation of speech. I miss her going down through the basement out into the cage (Dixie won't do it). I miss her spending hours out in the backyard, sometimes sniffing, sometimes just enjoying the day.

Lady wasn't really a "good girl" when we got her; she always got into mischief. And she bullied our other dogs. After about 10 years together, Lady was turning into a good girl and a sweet girl. I still remember me giving her a toy, her going away to play with it and then coming back to give it to me. I looked at it closely, then gave it back to her. She took it in her jaws and trotted away happily.

Dixie doesn't play with toys. Sigh.

It's been a tough year. And a quick one.