Dog In The Manger

I heard this story last night, and it's half-way between making me really indignant and incredulous - as in who the he;; behaves this way?! I know, like, and respect all the local people involved, went to school with their kids, that sort of thing, and I'm really hoping it works out...I'm waiting for the next instalment of the drama.

Now, this is a small rural community. Everyone knows everyone, kind of thing, and news spreads fast. The locals involved are all long-time residents, well-liked and respected. There's the Farmer, his Dog, the Baker, the CSA grower, and the Baker's Friends, as key players, as well as the Week-enders. What happened is this:

The Farmer has several dogs, and likes them, but can't give them a lot of one-on-one time - farmers are busy people. So when one of his dogs decided she wanted more company, and headed down the road to visit the Week-enders from the city who had bought a house for week-end visits, he didn't worry about it too much. The Week-enders thought this was the cutest thing ever, and took the dog everywhere with them when they were there on week-ends, having discovered the Dog loved going in the car. They took her to the local picnic, where she got into people's food. When the Farmer (who was also at the picnic) remonstrated with the Weekenders, they said "not our dog, not our problem". They also took the Dog to the Baker's when they went there to lunch every weekend, which she loved. There were people and other dogs, and it was fun.

The Farmer asked the Week-enders if they wanted to keep the Dog, since he knew the Dog wanted more company than he could give her, but they thought it would be too much responsibility, and they really preferred just the part-time visits. They thought it might be nice to have her in the city for a bit, but they had to bring her back after a couple days, since the Dog stopped eating and pooping, and was clearly unhappy and wanting to go back to the country.

The Dog, by this time, could find her own way to the Baker's, and went visiting there, where the Baker fed her and let her lie on the porch and socialize with visitors. The Farmer then asked the Baker if she wanted to keep the Dog, but the Baker thought her house was full enough with a husband and two daughters and a grandson and two other dogs and assorted cats and birds. But she offered to look for another home for the Dog, where she would have lots of company. It happened that the Baker's Friends, who she had known for decades, were looking for just such a dog, and they had acres of space, and another dog, and were home all day to pay attention to the Dog. So the Baker told the Farmer this, and since the Farmer also knew and liked her Friends, he agreed the Dog would be happy there. And she was. And the Friends told the Farmer this, and everyone was happy.

Now comes the kicker. The Week-enders, when they came down again, were mad as hops when they discovered that the Farmer had found another home for 'their' Dog. They stormed right off to the Baker's Friends, and yelled at them for taking 'their' Dog, said she had been 'their' Dog for years, refused to listen to anything they could say about the Dog being happy there and the Farmer (who was, after all, the actual owner) giving his permission, told the Friends that they had been planning to adopt her all along, and had made arrangements with the CSA grower to keep the Dog when they couldn't, whistled the Dog into their car and left in a cloud of dust. Then they called the Baker and yelled at her for  twenty minutes for giving away 'their' Dog, and told her the same story about their arrangements with the CSA grower. Now, the Baker and the CSA grower are neighbours, and his wife and her sister are good friends of the Baker's, and were there for lunch. So it didn't take long for the Baker to discover that the Week-enders had never said anything about their so-called 'arrangements' to the CSA grower, and he was not happy to hear about them lying about talking with him, or about them taking the Dog from the Baker's Friends.

So as it stands, the matter is thus: the Week-enders have essentially kidnapped the Dog from the people the Farmer approved as her new owners, claiming her as 'theirs', when they said previously they never wanted her full-time, (and when she was clearly unhappy in the city with them). They have permanently alienated the Baker, the Farmer, the CSA grower, the Baker's Friends, and most of the county, since the locals know and like and will support their own against the Week-enders, shocked and indignant at their behaviour. And the Friends and the Baker and the CSA grower have agreed that if the Week-enders do try to place the Dog with the CSA grower, that he will agree and then return the Dog to the Baker's Friends, and tell the Week-enders that she ran away or something. We are all hoping that that is what happens, and that the Week-enders don't keep the Dog until she gets ill, or worse, out of sheer pig-headedness. She shouldn't have to suffer for their behaviour!

Computer Bad; Quilts Good; News Sad

Still playing 'Fight the Computer'. Now it turns out the download from school, which I thought was Windows 7, is only an update. This after 2 attempts at downloading and a visit to IT at school. Which means I still need to beg or borrow a disk from someone of a reasonably recent Windows OS (Vista or XP), install it and partition the drive, THEN update to Windows 7 before I can put in the program I need. Beginning to wonder if the hassle is worth it.

Right, so now I've got that off my chest, something more fun...I skipped the Weaving and Spinning Guild meeting the other week in favor of the Quilter's Guild. The program for the night was a trunk show by Elaine Quehl, and a traveling display of mini art quilts from SAQA, which stands for Studio Art Quilt Associates.

Elaine I had met a couple times before, through a mutual friend. She does hand-dyed fabric, and the most incredible, often botanically inspired, art quilts using her fabrics. Click the link. Check them out in the gallery. Wonderful use of color and form.

SAQA was completely new to me. I must admit I'm not really drawn to abstract art, but I do think their idea of a traveling show is pretty neat. A whole group of small quilted panels by all different people, each piece maybe a foot square and framed individually, and sent from place to place to show people what art quilting can be. I think someone said this particular group had Hong Kong on its itinerary, so they are really traveling around. A virtual look at the show can be found on the SAQA website, for anyone curious.

One other piece of news to share, rather sad. (Stop here if you wish). The parents are back to one dog, and down one chicken. Allie made it rather obvious that even after being there for several weeks, she couldn't be trusted with the other animals unless under supervision. Mom had already scolded her away from the chickens that day, and she was being good. The minute Mom went off to check on the laundry, though, Allie tore one of the chickens to pieces, then compounded the felony by trying to hide the evidence, asking for the body back when it was discovered, and terrorizing one of the cats into hiding in the woodpile all night (found the next morning, cold and hungry but unharmed). Add that to the fact that she was showing a bit of a tendency to snap at people over the holidays, when everyone was home, and Mom felt they had no real choice but to put her down. She said she cried all day about it, but they couldn't risk keeping her, and wouldn't have felt right about giving someone else a dog that might harm them or their animals, especially in a rural area. Best case, she'd have to be chained or confined all the time (and what kind of life is that?); worst case, someone would abandon her again, or put her down after another person or animal got hurt. So there was no real way to make that a happy ending, unfortunately. Sometimes it just doesn't work, hard as you try.

Pink Dogs, Blue Stole

Y'know, it's kind of nice to be back in the city, in my own little apartment. The cat seems to think so too. We're both in the same boat - love the country, but also love our own (peaceful) space. It's all pros and cons. If there's no woodstove to snuggle up to here, there's also no feeding the stove necessary. And if I do have to do my own cooking, well, it's nice to get back down to normal quantities of food! And as for Julia, maybe here she can't sit out on the porch and watch birds for hours - but at least there are not quantities of noisy humans scaring her, or dogs forcing her to hide under the porch.

And speaking of dogs, we saw the weirdest thing the other day. Talk of your New Years' hallucinations. Both my parents' dogs were all agitated and barking like they heard something, which was the neighbor's hounds out following a coyote trail. And sure enough, several minutes later, the two hounds flashed out from the back fields, across our lawn, and off into the bush on the other side, noses glued to the packed track which we, and apparently the coyotes, use. Nothing weird in that. Except both hounds had been dyed pink. I expect it's so you can see the dogs easier against the snow or something, since they're normally white with spots. But the notion of pink hunting dogs was certainly enough to set Mom and I off in giggles for a while. And think how they'll clash with the owner's camouflage clothes! Plenty of fodder for bad jokes - Mike's a redneck, and now his dogs are pinknecks...Pink elephants on New Year's, maybe, but whoever heard of pink dogs...

Nice to have a few days before school starts to get back into the groove here - inventory pens and paper for school, maybe do a bit of spinning, finish Jen's stole. That's about 80% done, so with any luck I can have it blocking in the next day or so. Assuming, of course, I don't get sidetracked too much by new books from my Christmas gifts...

Redneck Mafia

My sweater is so close to done I'll probably be casting off tonight, and I've started a pair of socks. They're Jenna Hurry's 'Alpha', in last winter's Interweave, only I'm having to rejig them a tad, since my gauge is not quite the same, and I really want to use this wool -  a grey marl alpaca from Rhinebeck year before last.

I know I'm going to be fidgety enough to require extra knitting in the next few days. Not only do I have a job interview Tuesday, but the news from my parent's place is worrying, and it'll be Sunday before I hear whether things have been resolved.

I spoke to my mother last night, and she said they'd had what she termed, with grim humour, a St. Valentine's Day massacre. She came home that afternoon to find over half the laying hens and the rooster mauled and dead (but none eaten, oh, no, this was in sport), scattered over the yard, and a few traumatized survivors, two badly wounded.

After tending the injured, cleaning up the mess, and locking the survivors in the barn, she went tracking. Canine tracks, she said, two of them, bigger than coyote and smaller than their dog, (who was thankfully in the house - he's older and not a fighter.) She trailed them through the prickly ash and scrub, and came out on the road, where she lost them.

The neighbor on one side had seen two big, well-kept huskies around midday, and not liking the way they were approaching, she barricaded herself and her animals in the house, after which the dogs had gone down my parent's lane. At the neighbor on the other side, she found the son visiting, and he was, in her words, hopping mad. Seems the dogs had come over (presumably after taking out the chickens) and started threatening him and his mother while they were in the yard. He got her into the house - she recently had a hip operation - and was going for his shotgun, but the dogs wouldn't let him out of the house, until they eventually got bored and left.

The thing about the country, is you can usually find out not only about the animals in question, but also their owners. Inquiry revealed that the people attached to the dogs recently rented a place on the next road, had completely trashed the last place they rented, and were the sort who, if asked to confine their dogs as a nuisance (either privately or officially), would a) say you had no proof, b) NOT lock the dogs up, c) claim they were being harassed, and/or d) find a way of getting revenge on the complainant, which could range from theft to arson.

Mom said she doesn't feel safe going for a walk with the dog anymore, the chickens remaining can't be allowed outside, and the cats - well, luckily it's winter and they don't go out much, but she's going to worry anytime one of them wants to go, even if they can climb trees. She could hear the dogs howling nearby while we talked.

There's an unofficial rule in the country, though. If an animal is harming livestock, the farmer is just as likely to deal with the issue himself. And these dogs were killing for the sport of it and threatening adult humans in broad daylight, so a very real hazard. Of the households most threatened by the dogs, three have shotguns and one has a backhoe, and it gets very Mafia - no-one will have seen or heard anything odd if questioned, but the next time the dogs come and make trouble for someone, they will, with any luck, disappear, and someone will decide to do a bit of ditch-digging with the backhoe the next day. It's not the first time there have been issues with dogs in the area, although it's more often due to idiots who dump unwanted animals out on a country road, and figure they'll be able to fend for themselves - which they do, by going feral and killing livestock. But until word comes that the problem has been solved, I know I will be worrying about what could happen, and very thankful, for once, to be in the city, miles away.