Fortunately, my current mail carrier adores Bartleby. He'll even knock on the door to howdy to him on a nice day.

I know he's on a massive time clock, so I'm not sure how he can afford to stop, but I think he likes chatting about the weather and patting the pooch.

Oz barks, though he won't bite. Pico gives a yip or two and then stands up, does a dance and sits down wagging her tail when she meets someone new.

odd, If a dog is out, the mailmen around here do not deliver you mail. period.

He drives a mail truck and does everything possible to never leave it. Possibly he's afraid of dogs and lazy.

odd, If a dog is out, the mailmen around here do not deliver you mail. period.

However inconvenient it might be, I endorse this choice.

I remember an episode of the Dog Whisperer, where the neighbors had to do an intervention because the post office crossed their entire block off the delivery roster. Overkill, maybe, but I think it is for the dog owners to manage their dogs, not a civil servant or a delivery person.

If a dog is out, the mailmen around here do not deliver you mail. period.

I can understand that if there are actually dogs out.

Have you ever seen me do this David?

You didn't get clinical and give her a named condition, but you were pretty clear about diagnosing her as *not* having a phobia of dogs. People do some really weird shit, you know. And that doesn't make her distress less real, and your followup to tell on her must just have made things worse.

You can't win them all. Some people are just going to be strongly negative about stuff. I don't think it's our place to judge them for it, especially in a situation where it could jeopardise their job.

You can't win them all. Some people are just going to be strongly negative about stuff.

This is absolutely true. And in this case, it was me being strongly negative about someone making a public scene. I'd have been just as bothered if it didn't actually involve me.

Happier dog thing. Darby has been such a rockstar recently. For one thing, I finally got her together with my friend C's dog Craig for a playdate at the beach. They got on like gangbusters, which is a)fun to watch and b)hugely helpful because it means we can do overnights when one of us needs to go out of town.

Much bigger though, we went to a "reunion" last weekend at her rescue group. The group operates out of a dog day care. Lucy adored daycare, but for Darb, I suspect because she spent so much of her life in shelters, it's harder. Environments like that with lots of dog smells, cleaners, etc - what I like to call the Canine Industrial Complex - freak her right the hell out and turn her into a shaking ball of pitiful.

But she didn't! She was engaged and perky and exploring. The woman who runs the group and daycare was amazed. She got a little intimidated here and there but would just come and stand behind me and watch for a bit until she ran back out.

Awwww, brenda, you've done such a good job with Darby. Love and patience goes a long way.

::note to self - as a parent also. patience...::