Arizona's critters are legion and so are the horror stories of the ways they will find and eat your dog. Everywhere we turned, it seemed, there was a threat: javelina packs, cougars, hawks, backyard bobcats, rattlesnakes, fence-leaping coyotes. Every resident has a tale, it would seem, and they relish telling it, capping each legend with a headshake and a word to the wise: "Don't let your little dog off the leash or leave her alone, not even for a minute." We were grateful for the warnings, even neighbors Masolini and Krueger added to them, and believe me, they were heeded. But then comes this story about the careful couple who were walking their dachshund and a big owl came swooping down and snatched away the yelping pup, taking leash and all. My God!
We are just grateful to have our dog home safe and sound, where, when she goes outside for business, the biggest threat is mild frost bite to her little bottom.
(Pictured above is Kathleen in a $2 Meade, KS, museum. We stopped there on the way home because we couldn't stand the long, straight road any longer without taking a sanity break.)
