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Hello Hillsboro: Dogs personality sort of wooden
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While on one of many walks with our little Harley, I experienced a sight that cried out for a camera, and, newsman or not, I didn’t have one with me.

In fact, this very incident convinced me to join the revolution and purchase an Iphone.

You know, one of those alleged telephones that can do everything from take pictures to provide a guide service when you get lost.

Trust me…the photo ability was the only reason this imposter techie made the leap to a different world. However, don’t look for a text from me in the near, or far, future!

Anyway, Harley and I were walking on the sidewalk a few houses down from home, when he suddenly snapped to attention, put his nose in the air, focused his eyes, and practically became a pointer when he spotted a large dog on a lawn.

Actually, it was a realistic wooden lawn ornament that managed to fool Harley completely. I can’t really blame him. I think the thing even had a collar and leash to keep it on the premises.

Harley approached cautiously and circled his new neighbor, stepped back for further inspection, and then did exactly what he would be expected to do.

He half snuck around to the dog’s back end and, believe it or not, actually smelled where you would expect him to smell if it was really a new dog on the block, rather than an ornament! And me without a camera!

To make the experience even more humbling, the fake dog’s house is the residence of  reporter-photographer Tasha Mueller, who brightens up the Messenger of Juneau County every week. I’ll bet she would have had a camera!

Harley finished his rounds, so to speak, and said to me with his eyes, “I just don’t believe this. You’re upset about missing a stupid photo, and here I am introducing myself to a very sharp neighbor who smells like wood!”


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Speaking of dogs, what do Jennifer Aniston, Orlando Bloom, Sandra Bullock, Jake Gyllenhaal, J.K. Rowling, Charlize Theron, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, George Clooney, Seth MacFarlane, and Drew Barrymore all have in common, besides talent, of course?

Each of them has opened his or her heart and home to a rescue dog.


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Keeping on the subject of dogs:  Americans and French seem to be the planet’s most dog-loving populations, since in both the U.S. and France one in every three households maintains at least one pet dog.

In Germany and Switzerland, however, only one out of every 10 families shares its home with a dog.

Surprised?