(no subject)

It's the Saturday morning after Thanksgiving, and I'm actually feeling somewhat well rested. Amazing.

Last night, after our Thanksgiving dinner redux, I watched Miracle on 34th Street. It's been years since I've seen it. But now I have it on DVD (both the colorized and the black & white version are on the DVD, but I always go with b&w). I think I like that movie even more now as an adult than I did as a kid. It makes more sense to me.

Lance came into the living room to sit and watch TV with Reece and I at around 11:30. We both fell asleep - I was on the couch, Lance was on the La-Z-Boy. We woke up just before 2 am. So we let Reece out and then we all headed to bed once she came back in the house. It was tough getting her in, though. She was out in the back of the yard, and I had to go out after her. She grabbed something in her mouth and I kept trying to get her to drop it (she's always chewing on mulch or rocks or something). I stuck my hand in her mouth to grab whatever it was...she had already swallowed it. But my fingers came out of her mouth all covered in poop. So now I know what it was she was eating. I think the stray cats in our neighborhood have been using that part of our yard as a litter box. Reece hasn't been back there in months because Lance had that part of the yard fenced off (until Thursday) in an attempt to grow some grass there.

Lance is going to fence off the part of the yard again. We don't want her back there, especially if we have to go out at 2 am and chase her around the backyard (which has happened 2 nights in a row now).

Once we went to bed, we both slept fairly well. Reece got Lance up once. And she let us sleep in until past 7 before she decided to join us in bed.

So now we're up. I have some cleaning to do around the house, and I need to assemble a bookshelf. We need to rearrange a few pieces of furniture to make room for the Christmas tree, which I'm hoping to put up tomorrow. So...there is quite a bit I want to do today, but I still want to take it pretty easy.

And I need to figure out dinner. I think we're turkey'd out at this point. Still have enough leftover mashed potatoes that I'm tempted to do a shepherd's pie. But that would require a trip to the store for some ground beef. I also have some sweet Italian sausage I could use. That might make a good shepherd's pie. And I need to put the leftover turkey in the freezer.

In a split second, your life can change...

Two pit bulls came after Reece and I when we went out on our walk about an hour and a half ago or so.

We had just barely left the house. I saw two dogs walking toward us out of the corner of my eye. It took me a second to realize that they were pit bulls, and their postures suggested that we weren't about to have a friendly visit.

I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw them approach. Reece read my signals and immediately stopped. I made sure there were people around...I was stopped right in front of someone's house. Their garage door was open, and there was someone in the garage.

The pit bulls sniffed at Reece. Her hair stood up on end, her tail stuck straight out...not her usual friendly posture when she greets other dogs. I think she was reading my tenseness and responding to it.

We stood as still as possible. I made reassurances to Reece..."everything is going to be ok. Everything is going to be ok." And I knew it was a total lie. At any second, either one of those pit bulls could decide to attack.

To my relief, one of them lost interest and started wandering off. The other one looked to be following suit. Once their backs were turned, I ever so slightly turned myself toward home. My movement caught their eyes, and they came back again. This time, one of them snarled and snapped at Reece.

What were the people doing in the garage? Absolutely nothing to help me, that's for sure.

Just at that moment, a red car pulled up alongside me. "Are those your dogs?" I told him no. I told him that I was scared. He said that those dogs had come after his dog earlier that day. He urged me to get in his car and he told me that he was calling 911.

I debated whether I should get into a car with a total stranger, but as those pit bulls were still circling us, I didn't think I had a choice. I instinctively felt that he wanted to help. The pit bulls started circling his car...when I felt that we were enough out of harm's way, I opened his car door and thrust Reece inside and got in myself.

He drove us home. I walked in the house and told Lance what happened. He looked out the window and saw the pit bulls and immediately grabbed his sweater and stormed off down the street.

He found the dogs' owner. The guy who helped me was already at the house. Together, they confronted this man and Lance told him in no uncertain terms that if those dogs ever harm one hair on my head or Reece's head, Lance would kill them first and ask questions later. The guy who helped me had already called the police. The guy who owned the dogs was making excuses, and he said that he just moved into our neighborhood today.

While all this was going on, I was back at home with Reece, coming completely unglued. How close we were to disaster. How close we were to losing Reece...to them possibly attacking me and me either becoming seriously injured or losing my life. Those dogs ARE vicious. I'm convinced of that, despite their owner's insistence to the contrary. I held Reece and cried while Lance was down there telling that man that his dogs were not welcome in our neighborhood.

And I have still seen no sign of the police.

I'm afraid to walk her now. I'm terrified of this happening again. Lance is talking about getting a concealed weapons permit, just so we can walk our dog. What kind of world do we live in?