Back on-line

Sorry floks, for the past couple of weeks, I've been down due to the twin demons of computer problems and a cold that wouldn't go away. But now I'm better and back on-line, just in time to head out for the holidays.

But I will be writing from the road. There's so much to talk about lately.

First though, I must kill the dog.

I'm trying to get my traveling van loaded and shame on me--I leave the basement door open. Lagniappe promptly takes advantage and skates out. Of course I don't notice that he's gone. I'm just looking out my office window when I see one of my neighbor's many cats race by my window with a black German Shepherd in hot pursuit. "Aw hell..."

So I go out to get him about the time that he trees that cat. But before I can get him back, he sees two more cats at my neighbor's and goes running over there to get them too. Now my neighbors are nice people but they feed these stray cats so they always have a couple dozen hanging around their house. I try my best to keep Lagniappe from going over there but every now and again he slides one by me and heads for cat central. He'll chase these cats all around until every cat stays hidden or he drops from a doggie cardiac--neither of which has happened yet. Every time one cat gets someplace safe, another one pops up and gets chased. Rarely has Lagniappe ever caught one but the few that have been caught give our yard a wide berth now. He won't kill them but he does beat them up pretty good.

I finally get him back about five or six chases later and I toss him in my van. Now this is my NEW van, mind you. I'm trying to keep it nice. So I go get another bag to load in for the trip and when I come back, he's up on one of the seats with his less-than-clean paws. I cuss him out and drive him off the seat and then I see a couple of bloodstains. Great. Dumbass dog cut a paw while cat-chasing. So now I have to drag him back in the house, find the cut, and clean it. Then I have to go back and clean the formerly-clean seat. With the escape, the recapture, and the cleaning, I'm now another half-hour behind schedule.

Dogs...