Our two bark a bit when a dog walks by the house, but other than that are pretty chill. Oh, and Layla barks when the doorbell rings. Or when a doorbell rings on television, which is hilarious. No barking on walks, thank goodness. I never grew up with dogs and don't like a lot of barking. We draw pretty strict rules about the bark thing, but a huge part of it is how talky a dog naturally is so we are lucky.

We have Fenris inside at night and usually bring him inside if he really gets going with the barking. Of course if there is a squirrel around, it can be pretty hard to get him to come inside. He's all, you don't understand there is a SQUIRREL IN. OUR. TREE.

I love Australian Shepherds as much as the next guy, but getting them because they are cute and then being put off because they have more energy than you can ever expend without taking them to a herding ring...and the fact that, frankly, they are smarter than most of their people...well...that just ain't right to me.

Hee. Our Australian Shepherd mix is almost certainly smarter than us. You can see the wheels turning in his head all the time. And he has lots of energy. Which is why he loved summer camp; literally thousands of kids also with excess energy to burn. But when it's just D. & I we sometimes joke about getting him a couple of sheep. The sheep would be miserable, what with being moved all the time, but the Biscuit would be happy.

Sass barks at all the usual times - someone at the door, someone walking a dog by the house. But she always barks at kids, something about their size and/or speed, and that's what really stresses my DH out.

Ohhhhhh, talky animals. My cat, Damien, is the most conversation-intensive cat I have ever had. As in, he was standing on my pillow and meowing at me last night as I was trying to sleep. He didn't want to cuddle, he had fresh food and water and litter, he just wanted to talk. I have kicked men out of my bed for less.

Tom Daschle for Secretary of Health and Human Science.

Oh, yeah, and in the desert in New Mexico, Seabiscuit never barked except at drunk guys coming up the driveway, which was convenient. Then in the duplex he barked a bunch, but as sumi advised at the time, it really just was because there was so much more stimulation. Here it's somewhere between those two activity levels and he's generally pretty chill. Although there's more wildlife, so he's got a little more to comment on in that category.

Tep, just this morning I ran into the thing I sent you about your girl's anxiety and wondered if anything had improved for you.

I'm totally drawing a blank -- I don't remember what you sent me about doggie anxiety. Can you refresh my memory?

Shiba's are not only a doublecoated breed

I love our coon hound, but I despise his double coat. No one animal should have (and SHED) that much hair.

But when it's just D. & I we sometimes joke about getting him a couple of sheep. The sheep would be miserable, what with being moved all the time, but the Biscuit would be happy.

Get him a pygmy goat! Smart & hard to outwit. Or perhaps I just want a pet goat.

First it was the NYTimes site, now anything yahoo crashes my browser. It's fucking annoying.

In SD and MN, one of my cousins and her daughter are probably over the moon about the Daschle appointment. They worked with him a lot for mental health parity and were heartbroken when Thune won.