Hi LaMa! I don't know if the neighbors can hear everything in our yard. We have a lot of acreage, though you can hear the neighbor call for kids or dogs, I don't know about normal voices or barks. I know nothing about dog breeds, but in my search for black dogs who are waist high with pointy ears and tail, found a breed called Schipperke that looks like him. He was digging his nose around in the pine needle mulch and pushing it aside to eat something. I fed him to see if he would eat voraciously, in which case I'd try to catch him and find his owner. Glad I didn't have to. Lumi understandably hates when I rescue dogs, and was grumpy with me for even feeding him. Later I discovered that he lives next door, and was relieved that he isn't a stray. People don't let their dogs run wild where we lived, so if a dog was running loose, you knew to catch them and call the # on the collar.
I really like living in a new place. I drove to the tire shop this morning on a road I haven't been down before. It has staggeringly beautiful trees draped in even more Spanish moss than I've ever seen (and they were backlit by morning sun), picture perfect farms, interesting old mobile homes and little brick houses and the road is lined in my favorite wildflowers, bluegrass and wild purple aster. I may have to come back and dig up a few to transplant into the flower beds.
I'm sitting in a cafe waiting for the car, and since I ate fantastically well yesterday, I got a chocolate banana bread slice with my tea. I'll make up for it by eating just as well otherwise today.
I'll go get some nice amendments to make my own potting soil after this, and hopefully stop by a county park or boat landing on the way home.