I carry a souvenir-sized wooden baseball bat when I walk my two small dogs. It's not a real weapon; if I ever swung it with any force, it would likely snap on contact. It's mainly useful as something besides my hands to insert between my girls and whatever beastie is trying to get to them. It might even discourage a human masher. Philip got me a more lethal aluminum tire thumper--a small bat truck drivers use to quickly check the inflation of their tires--but I never carry that. It might actually injure whatever I hit with it.

But my toy bat proved useful recently.

It was a surprisingly cool weekday morning after weeks of 90-plus temperatures. Transient cloud cover tempted me to abandon my editing work for half an hour or so, harness my four-leggers and get us outside before the midday summer heat kicked in. We followed a familiar route through our residential neighborhood, allowing time for the girls to snuffle, drink from sprinkler-produced puddles and annoy worms faring poorly on the hot sidewalks.

As we turned toward home, I noticed that a door into a neighbor's garage was open, which was unusual. In a surprising moment of caution, I led my dogs across the street, intending to avoid getting in the way of a couple of guys using weed eaters on the lawn surrounding the........

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