Cujo

I have some good shop talk news but I wanted to share this story about Lucy/Cujo. Some of you may not know that Lucy has displayed aggressiveness toward other dogs. She gets pretty ferocious. She even attacked my parents' very passive, super sweet lab mix named Charlie. Yesterday, Katie was outside with Lucy. Lucy was tied to the porch railing with several jump ropes, which was fine because all she does is lay around. I was sitting inside on the couch watching out the window. I looked up and noticed our neighbor's little Pappillion walking over to Lucy!!! I shot off the couch and headed for the door. My worst thoughts were of this poor little dog being grabbed like a chew toy and shaken back and forth by my crazy dog! As I was opening the door I briefly noticed Lucy being very accepting of Ginger. She stayed laying down, her ears were relaxed, and even her tail thumped. As soon as I opened the door some sort of switch went on and Lucy's demeanor did a 180! She growled and hopped to her feet. Fortunately Ginger caught on and began to RUN! Unfortunately, the jump ropes did not keep Lucy from chasing Ginger. She took off after that little dog as fast as her flabby old body would let her! Katie and I were hollering at Lucy to stop but she didn't pay any attention. Then, the switch went off and she literally stopped in the middle of the road and lost interest in catching the little dog. She walked right back over to Katie. Ginger's boy, Caleb came out to get her. He didn't even know she'd gotten out of the house. Imagine his surprise when he saw his dog being chased up the middle of the road by Lucy! Anyway, our theory is that Lucy is very possessive of us, her family, when other dogs are around. She is the sweetest, most loving dog on the planet but she WILL NOT share her family with any other dog! It frustrates me but what can I do? When she's on her leash I make her sit and look at my face when other dogs pass by and she does okay. But if she's loose, watch out pups! So now we're calling her Cujo. I still love her to pieces.

Shop Talk: I got an e-mail this morning from Stories For Children Magazine. My article about Lucy has passed phase one of the submission process!! The assistant editor said that the article "gave her goosebumps and brought tears to her eyes." She wants me to send a picture of Lucy. YAY! Now I have to wait some more. It could be six weeks before I hear if the editor accepts the article. I'm hesitantly excited - but excited none the less.