Hi all:

Otis had a bit of a scare today.

Roxie, the Great Pyrennes two doors down, has been part of a huge custody
battle and is rarely in the neighbourhood.  Steve gets her for the odd
weekend, his ex-wife for much of the time, and his eldest daughter the rest
of the time.  Every once and while, when Steve isn't home, his teenaged kids
tie Roxie up outside at the front of the house.  Remarkably, they actually
tied her to the gas line on the outside of the house.  Luckily for them, the
rope broke instead of the gas line today.  Unfortunately, Otis just happened
to be there when it broke.

Roxie took off after Otis and, according to witnesses, Otis was going at
warp speed when he attempted to make a sharp turn on our driveway in order
to head through the hole in our fence to the safety of the backyard.  He
never got to the hole because he lost traction on the asphalt of the our
driveway, did a somersault, and took off running again, ending 20 feet up in
the neighbour's spruce tree.  When I went to see him, he was puffed out to
three times his normal size and really quite freaked out.  It took him some
time to decide to come down.  Meanwhile, I had to take Roxie back to her
house and wasn't too sure about that - Roxie is a huge dog.  The neighbour
accross the street came to help - he is a dog person and was firm with
Roxie, who then cowered.  She was not cowering from me.

Anyway, Otis' world remains rocked.  He is startled at every movement inside
the safety of his own house.  He ripped a bit of the covering off his thumb
claw pad but otherwise is unharmed.

Considering that free roaming dogs were outlawed in the city about 20 years
ago and we don't have a stray dog problem, this was a very unusual
circumstance.  I'm relieved that Otis made it out okay and satisfied that he
will remain more vigilant in the future.

Susan M
Otis and Chester