Doug’s Dynamic Drivel

An Indiana farm wife called the local phone company to report that her phone failed to ring most of the time when her friends called. Yet the few occasions it did ring, her pet hound dog would always moan for a few moments before the phone started to ring.

A telephone repairman was dispatched to the woman’s farm, he was curious to see this psychic dog and meet this senile elderly lady.

Upon arriving, he climbed the nearby telephone pole and hooked in his test set. He then called the subscriber’s home. The phone didn’t ring right away but he heard the dog moan out loud from a location on the side of the farm house for a few moments and then he heard the phone starting to ring in his test set.

After climbing down from the pole, the telephone repairman found:

1. The dog was tied to the telephone system’s ground wire via a steel chain and a steel chain choker collar.
2. The wire connection to the ground rod was loose.
3. The dog was receiving 90 volts of signaling current when the phone number was called.
4. After a couple of such electrical jolts, the dog would start moaning and then urinate on himself and the ground.
5. The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus causing the phone to ring.

This demonstrates that some problems can be fixed by pissing and moaning.