I had the heck scared out of me this afternoon! I opened the door to step outside and nearly got bowled over by a huge monster of a bulldog! He was sitting on the doorstep and was determined to come into the house. This thing weighs at least 60 or 70 pounds and has a head bigger than mine! I thought he was attacking me and slammed the door in his face. We don’t have a dog pound or dogcatcher here in rural Alabama, so my options were limited.I got to thinking about being trapped in my own house by a strange dog, got mad enough to be brave (or stupid) and opened the door again with all intentions of running the intruder off of my carport and out of my yard. Instead he darted by me and ran into my living room.
All I could think of was “What if he jumps on my cat? I’ll never be able to save poor Rufus if a bulldog gets a hold of him!” I was too worried about saving my cat to be scared for myself. First I tried leaving the door open and running the dog outside with a clothes hanger, but all he did was hunker down between the footstool and the couch and look up at me with those big, sad puppy dog eyes like you see in the paintings. It was kinda funny seeing something that big and scary looking that heartbroken. I finally just grabbed him by the collar and drug him outside. He didn’t want to go, but he never made a sound or tried to get away. Wound up he was nothing but a big baby.
Luckily the dog never saw the cat. It was hiding in a kitchen chair with every hair on his body standing straight up and growling. But Rufus was a smart enough kitty to know to growl softly, that dog would have eaten him in one bite! He’s still nervous, stalking around the house checking corners for stray dogs invading his territory.
So now I have a large stray dog sitting on my doorstep waiting to try and get inside again. Actually, I don’t think he’s a stray. He looks well fed and he has a collar on, but it doesn’t have a tag or anything to identify where he came from. He tried to get into the truck with my son when he left. Maybe he jumped out of the back of someone’s truck as they went by the house. I haven’t seen him before, so I don’t think he belongs to any of my neighbors. If he’s still here tomorrow, I’ll go around and ask to see if I can find his owner.
He acts gentle, I’m sure he’s someone’s pet. And for all his size, I believe that he’s a young dog, not more than a year or so old. His ears have been trimmed but his tail was never cropped. I believe that’s the way they do pit bulls when they want to fight them (I can’t see this dog fighting, he’s to docile). It appears he once was a house dog. I figure that he was raised inside and got put out when he became big enough to take up the whole couch! But bulldogs install terror in anyone who doesn’t know them, what with all the news articles about them attacking and mauling people, including their owners. But he hasn’t made any aggressive moves toward my dog or the puppy.
I’ve already inherited a cat and two dogs by taking in strays, I don’t need any more. Besides, this bulldog is big enough that I bet he eats more than all three of my critters combined. At least with him on the doorstep I don’t have to worry about strangers coming up. His appearance in enough to keep anyone from getting out of the car!
I hope everyone else’s week has been as enjoyable as mine. The annual 4th of July 
Mom passed away a year ago today. She was the anchor that stabilized us all. The family unit has been falling apart every since she left us. Without her to settle the squabbles and harsh words that siblings all too often fling at each other the sisters have withdrawn into their own worlds.
Maybe this why I'm such a sucker for strays. I live out in the country at the intersection of 3 rural roads and people seem to think it's the perfect place to dump unwanted pets. I have both a cat and a dog who just showed up at the house (NOT on the same day LOL) in the past year. Now I seem to be the not-so-proud owner of another puppy. A girl dog (moan). 
How many of us look like the picture at the left but have a better hair-do?? LOL Maybe not JUST like her but a little more curvy than we would like.
What about the 
(on the right) who were well-known dance hall girls in Dawson, Alaska. These women are a healthy size. They wouldn't have survived the rigors of the Alaskan gold mining camps and the dubious attentions and rough handling of the unwashed, horny miners who made up the majority of these ladies' paying customers if they hadn't had a little padding on their bones.
I went to 
on a frog, and he ain't Kermit!! He's the 
He's been "the shit" for the last couple of years, with 
4. The cat will self agitate and make ample suds. Never mind the noises that come from the toilet, the cat is actually enjoying this.
The write up about an 
I've got my first sunburn of the year while mowing the lawn and it's not full summer yet. I can't wait for all this overtime to cease. I plan to go to the river and drown a few worms/crickets while drinking more than a few cold ones!! And after buying a new tent (my last one died of old age) I'll be spending days at a time camped on the banks of the Tennessee River.
At least 15 or 20 minutes passed before we heard a siren. The old home place, whose yard had been fenced in with a pasture a couple of years ago, burned down to its foundations as fireman struggled to dodge panicked livestock and keep the fire from spreading to the neighboring homes.
When at last they managed to get back on the road they didn’t turn on the car’s headlights until they were a long way down the road. She looked the next morning and the car had torn up the grass and came close to getting stuck! But all she could think of was her dog, Curly, that’s chained up behind the old house. She’s more worried about him that any property damages!