The tags I engraved last night worked and I awoke to a call from a couple, John and Becky in the Pinecrest neighborhood, who had Muad’Dib and Stilgar. It tickled me that John said he was very familiar with Dune, and could only read Stilgar’s tag, but knew that the other must be Muad’Dib. Summer and I got up and drove over to get them, but she ended up just walking them around the block to get back home. They had pulled out the board I nailed up yesterday, so I had to secure it better.
After that, Summer had some work to do from home while I had some coffee and caught up on a bunch of bills. Eaddie eventually made it home from her birthday sleepover with friends, and then Summer and I left to run some errands and do some shopping. We stopped by the old house first so I could try and find my automatic fish feeder and see if I had a cooling towel to take on the trip. I noticed the tiny peaches were ripened on the small tree by the front walkway, so I had Summer pick a bunch while she waited for me.
From there, we checked out Tractor Supply to see what they had for dogs. All of the electric fences they had “for dogs” were buried cable with electronic collars, but Dad suggested a proper electric conductor to shock them away from the fenceline. Next we stopped by Walmart and picked up a few things for the trip. They had one of the collars I liked on sale, so I went ahead and grabbed it too. Then I wanted to stop by Shoe Carnival to see if they had any better walking shoes. I wasn’t willing to pay what they were asking though, so we continued to Hardee’s for a quick dinner before Summer had to go conduct a staff meeting.
I dropped Summer off at the wash, ran to the old house for a bit, and then went to Lowe’s to spend some rewards cash I had earned. They happened to have some charcoal on sale, so I was basically only out of pocket for the tax. By the time I finished looking around there, Summer was done and I took her home.
It seemed less awful outside when we got there, so I took the dogs for a walk by myself around the block. Stilgar kept pulling on the leash, which has been uncommon for him. Muad’Dib did pretty well, but they both struggled with attention, and only minded me when it suited them. I’m not sure what it’s going to take to break them of that. When we got back to the house, Stilgar was happy to take a swim, but Muad’Dib sat down in the driveway and didn’t want to move. If I hadn’t been drenched in sweat, I would have taken him out a little longer by himself, but it was just miserable. I tried to make up for it inside, but he just went under the porch and sulked.
Eaddie had gone out with Eli for a bit, but she made it home and we all wound down. I helped her compose a response to Beth’s beckoning for her to spend her senior year in Wisconsin. Sometime after Midnight, I heard dogs barking and went outside to find that ours had gotten into the neighbor’s yard again. At least they hadn’t gotten any farther, but they ignored my calls to come home, and even stopped barking as though they were trying to hide. Concerned they might have left the neighbor’s yard, I rode around the block but then heard Stilgar barking again, so I headed home. This time they were happy to meet me at the fenceline where I had barricaded them out already, so I let them back in and then attached yet another board to the fence. This is like some kind of reverse Stockholm syndrome by which I want to keep them the more they try to escape.
Checklists of Checklists