I was so upset last night.

My neighbours went away to spend New Year somewhere else and they left their beautiful labrador in the yard alone and she howled all night. They won't be back till tonight I imagine.

She kept trying to bark but the other really bad news is that every time she barks he gets a small shock to her neck from his collar. I'd never heard of that before but apparently the dog had been reported to council a long time ago as a barker and the council here had "apparently" cautioned the owners and told them they had to use this shock device.

Gee, when I heard that I was shocked enough and thought there must be some other way to help the problem, but they left their dog alone in the yard and we live in an area that's a narrow headland and there were fireworks going off quite early in the night and then again much later and they were coming from all different directions.

This poor doggie. There is also a laneway between my neighbour's house and my own and it's used a lot with people heading down to the beach especially when there's something happening down the beach.

I ended up having to go to bed eventually because I was tired and hot and didn't have any real reason to stay up till midnight, but the dog howled for hours non-stop. Earlier in the night I kept going out and calling her name and then she'd be quite because she knows me. I haven't heard a peep out of her today. I imagine she's so exhausted.