A Scared Night for Me and a Treat

So D gets up on Halloween morning and suggests we go for a bike ride. It's just about the end of the riding season for us and the weather was spectacular! So, naturally, we wind up at By Hand Yarn in Sonora. It's our favorite yarn shop. And just happens to be a beautiful bike ride away with a good place to stop for lunch/dinner on our way home. I stuck to my guns and didn't buy any yarn.

But I did buy a little Treat. This is a thingy you put your ball of yarn in so it doesn't roll around on the floor or couch or wherever your yarn is wont to roll around. It's made by a company named Lantern Moon and they help people in villages in Vietnam support themselves by making really fabulous products. I recommend you look them up on line and read about them. Their products are top notch and often clever.

Do you see how nice the two parts of this box are? The fabric is beautiful and I love the way it buttons together. There's also a strap handle, like the one on the top of the box, on the bottom. It will hold a good sized ball of yarn easily. And with class. I love it.

And now for the Scared Night part of my story. Vinnie, one our little doxies, has been escaping from the yard lately so I go outside with them and keep an eye on him. Anytime he has escaped he comes right back when I call him or chases me down and hangs out with me. He just wants to be next to me.

A couple nights ago the two little dogs were outside, I was with them, when the phone rang. I ran inside to get it, found it was just a computer call, and ran right back outside. I couldn't have been gone more that 90 seconds tops. When I got back outside Vinnie was gone. I called and called him. I walked every inch of the property four or five times. No dog. D got home and drove up and down streets and along every field. We looked for him for hours. We didn't have any luck. I went to bed in tears. I left the doors slightly open and screens on the storm doors open. We left every outside light we have on. Hoping he would find his way back. When D got up to go to work at 4 a.m. he heard a small cry outside. It was Vinnie. He was very glad to be home. We don't have any idea where he was but are darn glad he didn't get hit by a car or snatched by a coyote.

The next day he was fitted for the smaller electric fence collar and now wears it until he's sure that if he gets close to that fence it will bite him. So now neither he or Charlotte will go near the fence. The only way to get Charlotte out of the yard is to touch her collar. Then she knows the fence won't bite her. I'm hoping that will work for Vinnie too. So far so good. Ringo is in heaven. When he wants to keep away from the other dogs he just walks or sits next to the fence. They won't go near him.

As an added bonus Vinnie can't tell if he's wearing the fence collar or the no bark collar so when he has the fence collar on he doesn't bark. Some people think these training collars are cruel. But I think they help to keep your dog safe. I use a different one for Charlotte when she's out of the yard and now she won't go more than four feet away unless I give her permission.

Doggone dogs are as bad as kids for making us worry>