Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special  Treat – Jeannie Nelson

January 23, 2007

I am happy to announce another new writer for Storytime Tapestry.  Jennie Nelson becomes writer # 400. Please email her and welcome her to the fold

Four-Legged Pizza Runner

Jeannie Nelson

A dog-returns-home article caught my eye the other day. It was a rather
touching story of a rat terrier who dug out from his yard in Colorado and
turned up 7 months later in Knoxville, some 1300 miles away. The owner
thinks the dog was probably stolen and taken to Tennessee, where he managed
to escape. Thanks to a rabies tag, the dog and owner were reunited and the
story ends on that happy note.

This story caught my eye because we also have a dog that's a bit of a
traveler. He's a Treeing Walker Coondog, a southern breed that's relatively
unknown in Idaho. He was picked up running through the west end of town and
when no one stepped forth to claim him, he became available for adoption
through our local pound. Purebred hunting dogs don't generally show up at
the pound without some sort of identification or at the very least, an owner
who hasn't been frantically calling the Humane Society every couple of
hours. We all rather assumed then, that he had either been stolen or dumped
by an uncaring owner who discovered that Idaho doesn't have much to offer an
energetic Treeing Walker.

Our dog has adapted rather well to city life, he loves playing in the yard
and chasing the squirrels and coons that make their home in our trees, but
the dog's real passion seems to be slipping out of the yard and sniffing out
pizza. Whether it's Papa John's, Pizza Hut, Pizza Pipeline or the Idaho
Pizza Company, he loves them all. He's become lengendary for it and it seems
that a week doesn't pass by without a call from some neighbor telling me,
"Hey, I just saw your dog running down the street and it looks like he's
headed out for pizza again."
We now understand why his previous owners dumped him. Once a dog has had a
taste of freedom and Flying Pie pizza, he's no longer content to stay put in
the yard with a mere rubber chew toy.

We haven't been able to figure out how he's getting out of the yard, but I
suspect the coons may have a hand in it, along the lines of "you scratch our
backs, and we'll scratch yours". We're checking into an electronic fence but
in the meanwhile, I'm just hoping not to get any calls out of Tennessee that
my dog was picked up while dumpster diving at a Knoxville pizzeria.

Jeannie Nelson

claajke@msn.com