Harry and the Cable Guys

On Tuesday, our cable service suddenly ceased serving. When we called our provider, they tried and tried to send a new signal to restart the service, but nothing worked. So they scheduled a technician to come out on Thursday morning -- yesterday.

As Mom waited for his arrival, she suddenly heard -- big surprise -- loud, persistent, ear-splitting barking. Just Harry kept sniffing at the door. And our barking frenzy kept getting louder and louder. Not seeing a truck outside, Mom thought we were just enjoying the sound of our own voices, as we sometimes do -- but then when we wouldn't stop barking, she looked through the peephole in the door and saw them: two cable guys.

What to do next? Open the door and have the two of us fight over who should have the honor of greeting the men? Or -- brilliant idea -- give us treats to distract us while she opened the door and apologized for the delay and racket? "I didn't see a truck." (They had parked it down the street.) "I have two dogs." (Yep.) "They like to bark." (Duh!!)

Well, she decided on the treat approach and let the two cable guys in. Our treats finished, we were happy to greet the men in our usual friendly (i.e., boisterous) way. But they liked us. They really liked us!And as they tried to figure out what was wrong, we offered to help.


Long story short: it turned out that the cable company itself had erroneously cut our service off on Tuesday instead of that of a neighbor who had moved.

To figure that out, however, they had to go outside, and open the gates of our patio. Which meant that Mom had to keep us inside. At one point she decided that one of us -- I, Jake --would be better off in the bathroom with the door closed so she wouldn't have to worry about the two of us getting in each other's way.

Not such a brilliant idea this time: I hate being confined. I first expressed my displeasure by barking. But then, when she didn't come get me right away I decided to leave her a token of how p___ed I was. It was only later, when she herself went into the bathroom that she discovered the puddle I had left. So, here's a lesson for all of you moms who think that dogs don't do things on purpose when they are upset, forget it. We do. [Note from Mom: Jakey had been out not an hour before and always holds it until we take him out.]


While we are writing this light-hearted tale, our hearts are actually very heavy thinking of our leader, Jackson, who has suffered a few more incidents since his stroke a few weeks ago and is fighting for his life. So we once again need all your prayers, zen, power of the paw. Please! He is such a fighter. Such a cool guy. And his Js are such amazing peeps.

Wirey love to all -- especially to our pals in England, Scotland, and parts of Europe who are affected by that cloud of volcanic ash!!

Jake