They're the light of my life...

...when they're not being the bane of my existence.

A simple little ten-minute job. A quick Jeep ride over to S&L's house, where they just planted a whole bunch of flowers all over the place and asked me to keep them watered during the week. Beauty wanted to come along and I figured, "what could go wrong?"

When will I learn to spot the problem with that question?

Little Bear showed up at D&L's in record time - he must have run all the way. I expected that Beauty would be right with him, but she was nowhere to be found. Now I'm starting to hyperventilate, because it's one thing to lose your own idiot dog but when you lose your neighbor's - which you didn't have explicit permission to take in the first place - well, that's bad.

Beauty's not a big dog, and - god knows - not the sharpest knife in the rack. She should not be wandering the desert alone and if anything happened to her I'll never forgive myself. Nor will I expect much in the way of forgiveness from W.

Finally had to give up and head back, to either find that she went home or enlist W in the search. And there she was, not exactly as bold as brass. She knew she was in trouble: As soon as she saw me she crawl-walked over and sprawled at my feet. Well, at least she acknowledged that she shouldn't have run off, unlike LB who was just delighted to finish his adventure with a Jeep Ride! I've often wondered if everybody wouldn't be better off if I stopped going to get him, because this business of a Jeep ride home is definitely a reward for bad behavior. Trouble is he usually goes to D&L to visit their dogs and they don't want him around but he won't leave. When he shows up at J&H's they just shoo him away, and he usually comes home from there on his own.

Ghost, for a wonder, stuck with me. In fact, in hindsight I think he tried to tell me they'd run off. Goodness, I'll be glad when LB gets a few more years on him, and maybe a little wisdom.