Back when I had a samoyed as a child he chased a prowler out of our back yard one night. Also, when the neighbor kid I really didn't like climbed the fence into my backyard he jumped up with his front paws on the kid's shoulders and peed all over him (which he never did with anyone else). Good dog.

Erin, I don't think you need to come up with a specifically Jewish way to congratulate someone for the birth of a child. A warm welcome or congratulations is fine.

Thanks, guys. I'm trying to brush up on common Hebrew courtesies for the bar mitzah. Cause I'm a nerd like that. And I like to be respectful of other people's religions and their religious traditions. Also, it doesn't hurt that she has spread rumors about me as a kind of stupid lower class inferior, so since that's not the case I'm brushing up on my Hebrew.

The dog is probably better for letting me know if there ever was an intruder or something.

Darby only reacts if it's me or my sister coming in. Lucy was much better at spotting axe murderers, though most of them were cleverly disguised as dogs.

On the farm, our dog would bark at any unfamiliar car that pulled into our driveway. Once I came home with a friend in my parents' car, and the dog was confused when the stranger got out of the familiar car. She did start barking, though.

The Biscuit used to helpfully only bark at drunk people. I realize this is probably not an issue for most people, but for us it was really helpful to know ahead of time if the person wandering up to our door in the middle of the night was a) a student, b) a stranger stuck on a stretch of highway with no other source of aid for twenty miles, or c) someone drunk looking to start trouble. All of which happened with some regularity.

Then when we moved, he didn't have drunk people to bark at, so he took up barking at the garbageman (he always succeeded in chasing him away, and therefore always continued to bark at him) and the Schwans man, but in a slightly different, where's my treat, sort of way.

Now he's deafer and doesn't really bark at anyone.

but in a slightly different, where's my treat, sort of way.

Ah yes, dogs!

When we got a new Schwans man, who was not as well versed in the way of the Biscuit, he showed up the first week with no treat. You should have seen the disdainful look Seabiscuit gave him.

Salsa doesn't wake up for things that go bump in the night; she values her beauty sleep. She's also the last one up in the morning.