The Dog And Pony Show

Over this weekend Yachi and I had quite an adventure and even ended up in a foreign city. First we were taking a nice walk around north Capitol Hill after getting some ice cream. We saw an extremely active dog running at full pace through the yards and back and forth through the street. Without much thought I reached out and grabbed the dog's collar when it slowed down to pee against a tree. So began a trip with the dog from hell. Once I had the collar I could not really let the dog go, somehow its death underneath the wheels of an SUV would be on my hands. After asking random passerbys if they would take the dog into their fenced in yard until the owner called back we decided we needed a slightly different approach. We got a hold of a leash and decided to go to Mud Bay Granary. They would know what to do. They fed dogs so they must know all about them, right?

This is where the really hellish part took place. The dog had according to one helpful man on the street caught "pound cough". Yachi and I thought the dog was just not so bright and decided to continuously choke himself on his collar. Either way it was the most awful loud noise I have heard come from such a small animal. I wanted to stop and make a sign that said "No I am not abusing the dog, quite the opposite I am kindly trying to reunite it with its owner who must have purposefully lost it due to the annoying behavior and loud cough you are hearing now.". Instead I just grimaced and bore it.

Finally at Mud Bay they told us to take the thing to the pound and after letting it fill up on water we were about to head it out. Unfortunately a man wanted to enter with with a puppy and the stray dog was not about to allow that. It is at this point that I should mention the dog was slightly larger than a Chihuahua itself. It attacked both the puppy and it's owner with a ferocity I have not seen recently. With many dirty looks and some cursing from the owner we beat a hasty retreat from the store.

We threw the dog in a box and drove him down to the pound. He proved to be descended from Houdini's canine cousins though and frequently escaped from his box. Actually escape is to strong a word. Basically he pushed his nose through and jumped out. I think the failing was more on the human side than any amazing talent on the dog side. At the pound we left him with the nice people who quickly told us they could see why the dogs owners had "lost" him.

After such an exciting afternoon we decided to follow it up with a relaxing dinner in Portland, OR. It was a pretty quick drive there and we got in right as a couple of friends from college flew in. We all had a quiet-ish dinner and passed out. The next day was spent walking around PDX, specifically 23rd street. This was a great little neighborhood that had a lot of shops and restaurants. After buying some clothing for this weekends wedding and having some food we headed back. Overall a nice weekend.

Random Music Review (Blatantly stolen from Casey's random photo):

U.S. Pop Life, Vol. 12: Tribute to Fort Thunder - This is a series that records live shows from a particular venue or compiles tracks from a particular style. This instance is a venue-themed disc with Fort Thunder being a venue in Providence, R.I. which was well-known for its importance in the art rock / noise scene. It clocks in at over 70 minutes and has a couple of songs that are not as stellar as the rest but overall this is an incredibly strong compilation. It has Quintron next to Pleasurehorse and Red Monkey (One of my favorite stretches of the album).

It will have at least two songs you will love and lots of music you have never heard.