At first it was cute when the neighborhood kids came to visit Turtle, but now it's getting annoying. I made the mistake of letting them play my Playstation once, now they're over every day. They hardly even pay attention to Turtle anymore. They just want to play videogames and eat my food. One of the kids even tried opening my door to let himself in without even knocking. Ugh. I have started using excuses like, "Turtle is sleeping, you'll have to come back later", but Turtle doesn't know how to play along with it. He gets up and meets them at the door with his tail wagging.

Today, I vowed to not answer the door if they knocked, but one of them caught me while I was putting out the trash. Soon I will have to resort to harsher measures.

My dog Turtle was viciously attacked by my neighbor's dog. He is alive and will recover, but it has been a tough week.

Last Saturday, I flew to San Francisco to help my friend Beth drive across the country; she is moving to the Philadelphia area. We planed to take a leisurely trip along I-80 and stop at all of the usual tourist spots. The first night we made it to Reno. The second night, as we were arriving in Salt Lake City, I got a call from Emily.

She was out walking the dogs in the alley behind our house. The neighbor's large, wild dogs broke away from his control and jumped on Turtle, biting him and tearing a huge gash across his back. The guy didn't do anything to try to get his dogs off Turtle, but another neighbor saw the attack and kicked the dogs until they let go. Emily rushed him to the vet. When she called me, they didn't think he had a good chance of surviving. They were able to stabilize him that night and the next day he seemed strong enough to undergo surgery.

The vet cleaned out his wounds and stapled him shut. He stayed there for a few days recovering and gaining strength. Meanwhile, Beth and I drove from Salt Lake City to DC in two days. I was incredibly worried about Turtle and I felt horrible that Emily had to deal with it by herself. I just wanted to be back with them. Beth and I got in to DC on Tuesday night; Wednesday Turtle was ready to come home.

The last few days Emily and I have been keeping up with his rigorous schedule of medicines and warm compresses. He is spending most of his time in bed resting, but does go walk around in the yard a few times a day. Our neighbors have been great. Many of them have come over to visit him and bring treats. Even some of the neighborhood kids have stopped by. Turtle will need one more surgery and a long period of recovery, but he will eventually be ok.