Enter Cujo

Well, I've been faithfully feeding and walking Eugene. I also entertained Murphy (in the background) on Sunday but his human companion, Rui, reclaimed him on Monday.

Mostly Eugene has been a joy and is much easier to walk now than he was last December (except for the scene on Monday when three little yappy dogs were barking at him from behind the fence in their front yard and Eugene went crazy. "Bad dog, bad dog," I yelled trying to get him under control. Three schoolgirls who witnessed the whole scene added "bad dog" as they laughed while walking by. So at least that was cute.)

Tonight was a completely different story. When I got to GeezBob's house Eugene wasn't in the backyard. I panicked a little but there was no evidence that he had gotten out and his leash was missing so I figured another one of his "Uncles" was taking him for a walk.

I walked to the house next door and was happy to find Eugene playing in the front yard. Eugene seemed happy to see me too. Carlos, the next door neighbor, explained he'd brought Eugene over so the dog would have some human contact. (I later found the note Carlos had left in GeezBob's backyard.) Carlos put Eugene's collar and leash on him and I started to take him on a walk. I didn't really like the way Carlos had put the collar on (clipping the two ends together rather than threading one end of the chain through the loop). I decided to take Eugene into the backyard and fix the collar. Right BEFORE we went in the gate I decided I could just change the collar there because Eugene was being such a good boy. I don't really know why I thought that but it was a huge mistake.

Eugene saw a man walking down the sidewalk near the house and took off towards him. I called him but he wasn't about to stop so I went running after him. The man stopped and Eugene started circling him, barking and growling. I got in between Eugene and the man but couldn't get the dog under control. The man kept trying to get away and Eugene kept cornering him and evading my attempts to grab him. Every time I almost had him he'd jump away from me and lunge back at the man, barking and showing his teeth. Time moved in slow motion and this went on and on. The man was backed up to a tree trunk and Eugene wouldn't let him go. Finally Carlos came out from next door and between the two of us we cornered Eugene and Carlos grabbed him and drug him back to GeezBob's backyard.

I did my best to apologize to the man but he really just wanted to get away from the situation -- can't say I blame him.

I just fed Eugene and didn't take him for a walk. I figured he'd had enough exercise for one day.