Just Being Neighborly

The other night I was hosting the neighborhood book club at my house. As the ladies were arriving my neighbor's little dog was in the front yard barking. I was surprised because the dog is never out without supervision. It's always in the house or in their fully fenced back yard. One friend coming to book club was trapped in her car because she was nervous about the dog. I decided I would just quickly put the dog back in the back yard. The dog barked at me and growled a little but when I opened the gate, it went right in.

Nuisance Dog Problem : Solved.

Yesterday afternoon when I got home from the grocery store, I noticed the same dog hanging around in the yard across the street. It was my neighbor's birthday and I had gotten her a little treat, so I walked next door to give it to her and let her know that her dog had escaped once again.

She wasn't home. I stopped by again a few hours later. She still wasn't home but her teenage daughter was home from school. She confirmed that both dogs were safely inside the house. The third time I stopped by with the birthday treat, I finally found my friend at home. We were visiting when her dogs ran in to the room. Imagine my surprise when I saw that the dog was shaved. My friend confirmed that her dog had been shaved and hadn't been out of the house.

With this revelation came two truths : first, the dog I had seen out earlier in the day did not belong to my neighbor and second, I put the wrong dog in her back yard last week.