Otis Update, and About Rosie

Otis, I'm sorry to say, is completely recovered from his bee stings and joyfully attacking insects again. Some dogs never learn.

Baxter, the vacationing golden retriever who must put up with Otis' overabundance of energy and jealousy, is suffering mightily and, I swear, losing some weight because of the constant observation of so much useless energy.

Otis bounds. He jumps. He yelps, howls, cries, whatever it takes to get attention. He drags bones, sticks, cornstalks, ragged baseballs and anything he can find onto the front walk. He even managed to get hold of the top layer of a piece of plywood on the porch floor and has torn it loose. He is a mess. We adore him.

Baxter is a golden love. He's missing his peeps to be sure, but he is enjoying some time in the country and goes around asserting his claim to his country estate by marking every tree, flower, bush and weed around our yard. He will have the big head when he goes home to Leesburg and tells the other dogs about his place over in West Virginia.

Rosie the beagle unfortunately did not work out. She never got over her keen interest in the chickens and turkeys, and the first chicken to escape the fence lived only a few seconds before Rosie had killed her. And did not listen. And tried to be sneaky about it, skulking away with that look dogs have when they've done something bad and think they can get away with it.

Having worked with the dog, scolded her, tried to teach her that the poultry was not to be messed with, I could not risk keeping her after she'd tasted a bird. I also did not feel comfortable giving her to the neighbor who wanted to make her a hunting dog because his dogs often get loose and travel the mile from his house to mine regularly. She'd have been back, no doubt about it.

I was very sad to have to take her to the shelter. We tried. I hope against reality that she found a home. If she'd been vegetarian we'd have happily kept her.

But we have Otis and he is as happy as he can be. Even Baby tolerates him and occasionally even plays with him--a funny sight watching a 14-year-old cocker trying to play with a puppy!

And Otis is scared of chickens. Wait til he meets the rooster who is coming to our henhouse this weekend! That should be interesting.

Then there is the wild kitten Aaron is bringing to us. A new show might be coming to the farm--Otis and the Wild Kitten.