I love the image of an Airedale taking a nice bite out of someone's ass! I think I'll forever have that image in my head now.

And a completely unrelated Airedale story I just remembered. Years ago, I worked at a cat shelter that had a food pantry that gave out pet food to people having trouble affording it. Around the same time, I ended up working in an office with a woman who said, "oh, my dad absolutely loves that shelter, because they found our dog." To make a long story short, her parents had an old Airedale who one day disappeared from their yard and wasn't wearing his collar. A few days later, a homeless guy with a recently groomed Airedale showed up at the shelter (which was miles across town from this woman's parents house) wanting dog food for the dog. The shelter's dog person immediately knew that this well-groomed dog did not belong to the homeless guy, so she started calling groomers to try to find out if anyone knew whose dog it might be, and eventually she tracked down the owners. It always makes me giggle to think of this dog spending a few days traveling around the north side of Chicago, and I always wonder where all he went and what he saw.

It always makes me giggle to think of this dog spending a few days traveling around the north side of Chicago, and I always wonder where all he went and what he saw.

Because male Airedales tend to be big, happy-go-lucky goofballs, he was probably a very amused fellow for a while, but he was also probably glad to get away from his "On The Road" lifestyle and get back to the comforts of home! Female Airedales can be that way for a while, until they are tired of whatever is going on, and then they sit down and give you the look. If I ever get another female Airedale, I'm naming her Tracy Lord, after Katharine Hepburn's character in "The Philadelphia Story." (NOT Tracy Lords, the porn diva!)

I am a firm believer in karma. I have to admit that I have, occasionally, taken pleasure in seeing it in action... and not the good kind. Ultimately, I know that kind of thing doesn't earn me good karma points or whatever, but it was sure worth it. Heh.

One of the people that I wrote about in the above entry called me up yesterday afternoon, not feeling at all happy, and started out the phone call saying: "And what's good about today? Could you tell me one thing?" I said: "Hmmm....it's Friday?" We talked for a while, and this person said he was go off and be alone to think about things and reflect a bit. That's good, that's what he needs to do. Sometimes I think it's my karma to be nice to people who have had some bad karma come their way, and to not go: "Well, nanner, nanner, nanner, what did you THINK would happen?"

The other thing that Karma the Airedale was notorious for was head-butts. Airedales have anvils for heads, in case you didn't know. Seriously. I'm still on a list for Airedale owners, and a couple of years ago, a woman on the list had to have surgery because her Airedale reared up and hit her in the cheekbone with the top of his head. He broke the orbital bone -- the bone that cradles your eyeball -- and that's not a good thing.

Anyway, karma can sometimes be a good head-thumping and we all need them.