An elderly lady phoned Verizon 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 barked 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 barked loudly and the telephone began to ring. Climbing down from the pole, the telephone repairman found:
The dog was tied to the telephone system’s ground post via an iron chain and collar.
The dog was receiving 90 volts of signaling current when the phone number was called.
After several such jolts, the dog would start barking and then urinate on the ground.
The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus causing the phone to ring.
Which goes to show that some problems can be fixed by just pissing on them.
I found no proof if this is real, but it sure is funny!