11:40 a.m.

On the lake road on the way to the cabin, we passed L’s cousin doing highway repairs, and stopped to say hello.

I was sitting next to L in the truck, so his cousin said “What do you two think you’re doing, courting?”

“We heard there was a nude beach out here,” L said.

As we drove further, I mentioned that Chester had left me in the dust yesterday and returned to the yard before I could put him back on the leash. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do,” I said, “because he ignores me when I call him, and I can’t have him back in the yard killing the cats. The kids would never forgive me.”

“That’s right,” L said. “That’s why he got passed over at police-dog school; he doesn’t listen at all.”

“He just needs the right home,” I lamented, “where there are no cattle or cats.”

“Maybe you should start up a Home for Useless Dogs,” L said.