A Visitor

I looked outside this morning at the dogs swirling around the dining room door and then did a double take, because Otty looked curiously . . . fluffy.

That's because it wasn't Otty. It was another black dog. Specifically, it was the neighbor's Bernese Mountain Dog. He came visiting once before and the MiL identified him. She knows pretty much every purebred dog within a twenty mile radius, I bet. This particular dog lives just over the gully and is a very nice dog, if not overly intelligent. Last time we kept him in the back hall while we called his owners to come get him. This time we brought him right in the house, since he was just outside the door.

Mia was inside at the time, and while she wasn't overtly hostile, she did keep a close eye on this interloper to her territory. Especially since Cubby was there as well. Mia stood right next to the chair I was sitting in with Cubby, looking ready to bite the strange dog's face should he show any signs of aggression towards the hairless puppy. That would have been a less than fair fight, to say the least. The other dog doesn't look as if he's ever so much as chewed aggressively on a dog toy, much less attacked coyotes.

Cubby was quite interested in this new strange animal as well. It was the same color as Otty, but fluffy like Leda. It looked like a dog, but showed no interest in licking his face. Whatever could it be?

In this way our unexpected visitor entertained us all for about 15 minutes before his owner came to collect him with many expressions of gratitude for our corralling of his wayward dog. Nice to know our dogs aren't the only ones that go visiting.