[Asterisk-Users] Moaning dog...

[John Novack]

Rich Adamson wrote:

>Here's one for you phone people....
>
>An elderly lady phoned her telephone company to report that her telephone
>failed to ring when her friends called - and that on the few occasions when it
>did ring, her pet dog always moaned right before the phone rang.
>
>The telephone repairman proceeded to the scene, curious to see this psychic
>dog or senile elderly lady. He climbed a nearby telephone pole, hooked in his
>test set, and dialed the subscriber's house. The phone didn't ring right away,
>but then the dog moaned loudly and the telephone began to ring.
>
>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 collar.
>2. The wire connection to the ground rod was loose.
>3. The dog was receiving voltage of signaling current when the phone number
>was called.
>4. After a couple of such jolts, the dog would start moaning and then urinate
>on himself and the ground. The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus
>causing the phone to ring.
>
>Which demonstrates that some problems CAN be fixed by pissing and moaning.
>  
>
Urban legend, probably older than you and I together, and, at least in 
the US, valid only for party lines that rang from T or R to ground
Certainly not a problem in the Gulf Coast these days either.

John Novack