Stray dogs that live on the highway walk on three legs
- Leon Russell in "Ballad for a Soldier"

I live in a semi-rural area. It's out of town but it is a neighborhood. For as long as I've lived here various neighbors have had free-range dogs. Some of them live long happy lives, some get hit by cars, some just disappear. They've stolen things out of my garage, pulled new trees out of the ground, dug up and chewed up irrigation line, pooped all over my front yard, scared my daughter and her friends, nipped at our heels, dug holes in the yard, and fought outside my bedroom window in the middle of the night. But that's part of the price of living out on the lawless prairie. For the most part they don't cause problems.

I went out for a run this morning and almost immediately I had three loose neighborhood dogs running around me. By the time I passed the house next door to me two more had joined. They are all annoying, but only one or two are real problems. One of them growls and barks like crazy, but he doesn't get closer than about five feet. Another one used to get close enough that my "kick" would make contact - I suppose with the underside of her head but she was behind me and I was really trying to ignore her so I don't know for sure. This pack stayed with me for a couple of hundred yards.

Just before I hit the one-mile turn-around I picked up three new dogs. They were happy & quiet and were just looking for someone to follow. They ran with me all the way home, and one of them - a young white lab - decided she liked my house and tried to go in with me. Ninety minutes later when I left for work she was still there. I drove slow enough for her to chase me until I got almost to where I picked her up, and thankfully she wasn't on my porch when I got home from work tonight.