Chris and Leah will be here this evening to stay with Boomer. Brit, Kendyll and I will go to my mom’s so we’ll be closer to the airport. I may not even go to sleep and I want to keep Kendyll awake, too. We’ll see how that goes.

I spoke to the animal control guy this past weekend, too. Since I won’t be here I’m a little concerned about Belle getting out. She’s usually pretty good and hasn’t given us a problem for quite a while but if someone doesn’t close the door all the way, she may run off looking for me. (She loves me. )

Jim, the Animal Control guy told me not to worry. He’ll make sure Belle is fine and if she gets out, he’ll just bring her back. And to think, we used to not be so fond of each other.

Which reminds me, the county is supposed to be opening a new animal shelter less than a mile from my house. I wonder if they’ll be hiring? I think I would enjoy working with dogs and I could probably force myself to tolerate the cats as well. Hmmmm… an interesting thought.

Lately, though, Belle has been trying to jump through the closed windows. There are two dogs running loose through the neighborhood, both spotted right in my backyard. I am not happy about this.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really oppose dogs running loose. This is a quiet neighborhood with a 15mph speed limit. I grew up with our dog following me all over our own neighborhood. There were no leash laws back then. Besides, I’m not really afraid of dogs. I’m not stupid about it; I know some dogs are aggressive. But I’m not fearful, either.

The problem is that my dog can’t run loose because it’s against the law and everyone goes absolutely bonkers if she’s loose because she’s a Pit Bull. Understand, she has never bitten a single person. (She’s knocked Kendyll down with her tail, though) She is very well behaved and her bark is the most vicious thing about her. But people are afraid. Go figure.

So these two dogs, which by the way, are rather skittish and not really trustworthy, are running loose and making my dog crazy. Besides trying to jump through the windows, she’s wanting outside and back in every few minutes, causing my furnace to keep kicking on and using up way to much propane. THAT makes me furious.

And perhaps the biggest problem is that one of the two dogs belong to my next door neighbors who hate me, my kids and my dog. Admittedly, my dog has killed two of their 23 cats. (Pits are TERRIORS, bred for preying on small animals, not humans.) On the other hand, we actually have a leash law for cats because they’re so destructive here (and owning 23 of them is pretty irresponsible, IMO) and those cats taunted my dog by coming into our yard, too. So it’s not like I can knock on their door and ask them to tie up their dog. Or even wave politely. (Trust me on that.)

Okay, I think I’m ranting. I need to move on. I just wish those two dogs would go play at the other end of the neighborhood. This is getting tiring. I did see one neighbor chase the dogs from his yard; I wonder if he’ll report them to animal control.

Some people are just as concerned about cats, for instance. And then there are those who love all animals. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike other animals but I just don’t get all sappy and emotional over anything other than dogs. Aimee is different.

Whether she’s talking about Alex, the African Grey Parrot or the Discovery Channel’s ROAR program, it’s easy to see that Aimee’s heart is all about the animals.

Check out he blog and enjoy some good animal reading. And follow her lead in helping to rescue animals, either all types or the animal of your choice. If everyone helps a little, a lot will get done.

Until now.

Brian and Nick were sitting at the kitchen counter eating their supper. Brit was putting baby food away in the cupboard. I was at my computer. Kendyll had been sitting nearby, playing with her toys.

That’s when Belle got all weird and started growling at Brian. Belle doesn’t growl usually when she wants something, like to go outside. So that made Brian look at her. Belle ran over to Kendyll barking, Brian spun around on his bar stool and Nick jumped up to look at Belle who was standing up against Kendyll, just inches from the stairs leading to my computer room.

Now, granted, there are only three steps there, allcarpeted as is the floor at the bottom of the steps. At most, Kendyll would probably have been scared by the fall rather than actually hurt. Nevertheless, Belle was watching and alerted Brian, Nick and Brit that Kendyll was about to fall.

I was so proud of my beautiful Belle! She’s always so good to Kendyll, even sitting patiently when Kendyll swipes her chew toys or plays in her dog food. But this time everyone else got to see how awesome Belle is with Kendyll.

Needless to say, Belle enjoyed much petting and quite a few dog treats the rest of the night.