Thrills and Chills

A section of my backyard fence is down since the windstorms Sunday evening. This opens up whole new opportunities for my dog Llewellyn and for the four-year-old next door.

Caitlin East* is fascinated with my dog. She has two kittehs of her own (older by far than she is), but a Real Live Dog is something altogether different.

Always before, I've brought him out on his leash to the front yard so she and other neighborhood children can pet him and practice telling him to sit, sit!

But now the backyard fence is down. And when Caitlin* is in her backyard with her daddy, Llewellyn, off-leash, just has to run through and explore and be in-your-face sociable on the other side of the line. And Caitlin* just has to come through (past the fallen branches) and visit my dog on his own turf.

This makes him very, very happeeee! And like the collie mix he is, he runs round and round joyously, rambunctiously, heedlessly!! And last night he nearly barrelled into little Caitlin, who is about half his size.

Suddenly, being friends with The Puppy didn't seem like such a good idea any more. No, she didn't want to run back into her own yard. She wanted to squeal and tremble and cling to me, holding my hand and saying, "I'm scared of the puppy! I'm scared!"

"Why are you scared? He didn't mean to run into you. He's just being careless, and we have to teach him not to."

"I'm scared!"

"How come?"

"Because his mouth is open!!!"

Oh, yeah. When you've just turned four, all those goggie toofs can be pretty scary, even when the goggie is grinning like a silly idjit.

So we practiced throwing him the tennis ball, which intices him to run away from her-- not so intimidating. And getting her to laugh at his long red tongue as he sits there panting.

This evening, then, Caitlin* was in her backyard with her daddy. Away through the gap Llewellyn went, dragging his leash, hello, hello, helloooo!!!

"Eeee!! Eeee!!" went Caitlin*, and hid behind her daddy. I called my doggie, and the child squealed and ran away. Off goes my mutt after, but luckily for us all, not to chase her, rather to nose here, there, and everywhere around their yard. And off she went after him, picking up his leash, commanding him to sit. And had no problem at all when Llewellyn poked in when her dad was trying to tie her shoes.

She's still not so sure about those grinning doggie teeth. But she can't keep away, rambunctious mutt or not. So I have to wonder: How much of this is my dog scaring the kid next door, and how much is this her scaring herself?

(I shall keep a close eye on the situation.)