Old dog, new trick

Don't worry, this blog will not always be about my dog. But dang, she keeps surprising me with new tricks - like all she does is think of ways she can mess with me.

Yesterday I took her to the park behind my house - the park is really unique - a 3-acre haven in the middle of the city owned by the 40 families surrounding it. Almost every family has a dog, so it's like dog happy hour after work. Most people know most dogs, and it's private, so the dogs ignore the city leash laws and visit pretty freely. Yesterday Bella did not want to come in - had not had her fill, whatever. When I called her, she actually ran the other way.

No worries. I pretended to leave, yelled goodbye, and walked back into my house. Usually this trick works pretty well, and she shows up within 30 seconds, because as tough as she acts, she doesn't like being out in the park on her own. Well, 3 minutes go by, and no dog.

The phone rings, and it's a new neighbor who lives down the block. "I have a dog here named Bella and this number was on her tag - I live ...." I run back into the park, and there she is, behind bars in the neighbor's back yard, wagging her tail like crazy, and the neighbor is now giving her treats and petting her, because she was so callously abandoned by her owner. "She seems like such a sweet, nice dog I had to protect her," says the nice neighbor, who does not realize he was part of a minor revenge plot with a treat finish.

She does wander into people's back yards and garages looking for handouts and new friends, so I'm just hoping she found a new friend and was not really manipulating the neighbor into feeling sorry for her and to make me look bad. But it's possible.