Livvy Dunne Drops Her SI Swim Snaps, 'Reacher' Wallops His Neighbor & Escape Dogs!

I am faced with a very serious dilemma.

This Saturday is my OUTLAST Race. Which means I have to be up at 5 a.m. — bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to run for six straight hours. Not overtraining in the gym this week will be key. As well as nutrition, hydration, recovery and — perhaps most importantly — plenty of restorative sleep.

I've been preparing for this for weeks, and I'm as ready as I'll ever be.

So tell me what in the world I did to deserve the Tennessee-Iowa State tip-off to be scheduled for 10:10 p.m. on Friday night?

I mean, you have got to be kidding me.

OK, it's actually 9:10 p.m. here in the Central Time Zone. But still. If I stay up to watch the whole thing, I'm not getting to sleep until close to midnight. Which means five hours of sleep. Which is not ideal for pre-endurance-race slumber.

I'm not bowing out of the race. That's loser behavior, and that is not an option.

And so I have two choices:

• Go to bed at 9 p.m. and miss the game
• Stay up for the game and drag ass all day Saturday

If I stay up late and the Vols lose, I'll be livid. But if I miss the game and they win, I'll also be livid.

So you see my dilemma.

The responsible thing to do would be to go to bed early, be well-rested for OUTLAST and accept whatever fate awaits Tennessee. 

But since when do I do the responsible thing? I see a late night in my future and a whole pot of coffee Saturday morning. But, if I'm being honest, an Elite Eight berth would make it all seem worth it.

My fate is in your hands, Vols. Don't ruin my weekend.

Now let's do some Nightcaps.

Did You See This Dog Story Out Of China?

Y'all, I can't get enough of this viral story about seven dogs who were stolen from their neighborhood and thrown onto a transport truck to be harvested for meat.

F*ck you for this, China. By the way.

Anyway, the dogs escaped from the truck and walked more than 10 miles together back to their owners. By all accounts, a Corgi led the way, and the dogs formed a shield around a severely injured German Shepherd to protect him the whole way home.

I'm obsessed with this.

This story was all over my feed yesterday, and I was praying it wasn't some sort of engagement bait or AI scam. But based on everything I've found, it's completely real!

Dogs, man. They are the best. And I can't wait for the movie adaptation.

Livvy Dunne Drops Her SI Swim Shots

Happy Sports Illustrated Swimsuit drop to all who celebrate. 

This is a significantly less exciting development to me than the escape dogs story, but I'm here to give you people what you want. 

So don't say I never did anything for you.

Anyway, SI released a whole bunch of photos on Instagram today of their 2026 swimsuit models, including Brooks Nader (who, as y'all have made clear to me, is yucky), Haley Baylee (that can't be her real name), Ilona Maher, Lauren Chan and Molly Sims.

Oh, and OutKick favorite Livvy Dunne. Who is dating Paul Skenes. Who is probably at home still wrestling with that duvet cover.

She's got a point, though. Changing bedding is one of the absolute worst household tasks. 

My husband gets visibly dejected every Sunday when he sees the sheets and blankets stripped off the bed. Because he knows he'll inevitably be tasked with putting them back on.

Actually, it makes me wonder how often (or, rather, how rarely) those sheets were changed before we lived together.

Never mind, I don't want to think about that.

Whose Side Are You Taking: Alan Ritchson Or Male-Karen Neighbor?

What is a good name for a male Karen? A Keith? A Kyle? A Darren?

I don't know. But in this case, his name is Ronnie.

By now you've seen the videos of actor Alan Ritchson (aka "Reacher") beating the piss out of his neighbor on a lawn in Brentwood, Tennessee. And I'm sure many of you already had preconceived notions about whose side to take, given the fact that Ritchson is not shy about his liberal leanings.

But I'm going to ask you to put politics aside and look at the facts. Because two things can be true: Ritchson can be a leftist douche and that other guy can still deserve to get his ass kicked.

The original video started with the beatdown.

This is what we all saw first. Then the neighbor, Ronnie Taylor, went on TMZ with his big ol' shiner and tried to garner some sympathy.

He had a MAGA hat hanging in the background, so suddenly this became a Left vs. Right thing on Twitter. Because that's how pea-brained people on Twitter operate. But this one's not political, folks.

Ronnie admitted: "I did push him because he was coming towards me on his bike."

Well, now we have Ritchson's bodycam (try to ignore the weird spa music in the background). And as it turns out, the reason Ritchson was coming toward him on his bike is because Ronnie RAN OUT INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS MOVING BIKE.

So not only did Ronnie cause Ritchson to crash, he also endangered his two sons on motorbikes behind him.

If your neighbor jumped out in front of your moving vehicle — especially with your children in tow — you wouldn't be too thrilled about it either. And it wasn't until the neighbor kept flapping his jaws and pushed his bike over AGAIN that Ritchson retaliated physically.

Now listen, maybe Ritchson was being too loud or going too fast on his bike. I don't know. But if that's the case, there are other ways to handle it that don't involve throwing yourself into the middle of the street.

As far as I'm concerned, Ronnie started the fight, and Ritchson finished it. FAFO, as they say.

Mike Tyson has a pretty famous quote: "Social media made y'all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it."

That goes for real life, too.

Let's open the mailbag.

Y'all know I have a soft spot for German Shepherds.

Especially rescue ones.

Eric P. Writes: From a rescue shelter to luxuriating in Palm Springs; Duke is not struggling with the change of scenery.

Chris calls me out on my vernacular.

Last week, I used the term "gosh-damned." And I should be ashamed of myself.

Chris B. Writes: Amber, you live in Tennessee now and you should know this sooner rather than later: it’s "gol-danged" or "daggum."

If you’re really mad, you can use "Got-danged," but you have to follow with "Pardon my French."

Gene In The Rock has a question on canine behavior.

Gene Writes: Lexi has turned into a strapping young girl just shy of 40 pounds, and as expected, the Malinois in her wants a lot of exercise. During daylight, I usually toss rope balls across the yard for her (good exercise for both of us, since Grampy was a pitcher back in prehistory and had a low 90's fastball). However, her doggy color blindness and my limited night vision make that impossible in the evening. To that end, I resort to the laser dot.

That's where the debate starts, and maybe it can spark some discussion in your column. I'm aware of "laser pointer syndrome" and all the general warnings from the veterinary community, but my personal take on it is that much of it is based on a faulty premise. 

To wit: That the dog can't relate the source of the dot and regard it as healthy play rather than unattainable prey. With Lexi and my daughter's Shepherd Boo Bear, that premise is demonstrably wrong. Lexi already knows to look at my hand to relocate the dot when she loses track, proving conclusively that you don't need Pythagorean Theorem to understand geometry. Boo will not only bring you the pointer if you leave it laying around, as a puppy he actually chewed one up, no doubt trying to get the dot to come out and play. Old Bud was a completely different story, he never understood it. So is my daughter's Chiweenie who already has some anxiety issues. We used the dot sparingly with Bud and never use it with little Buzz.

My question for any vets and other dog-owning readers is thus: Doesn't this depend greatly on the intelligence and personality of the dog? I personally feel it does, and that any dog smart enough to understand that the dot comes from their owner and not Mother Nature will regard it as normal play and be at little or no risk from a daily dot chase. What say?

Amber:

This is an interesting question. And while I can't answer it definitively, I do believe the laser pointer probably is a pretty good indicator of canine intelligence,

I've only used one once with dogs. It was many moons ago with my girl Lucy and my ex-boyfriend's squishy bulldog, Buddy. Lucy was a smart cookie. Like many of his fellow Old English Bulldogs, though, Buddy had marbles for brains.

Bulldog owners, I say that lovingly. Old Englishes are sweet and cute and charming in their own ways, but the breed isn't exactly known for its superior intelligence.

Anyway, all that to say Buddy lost his mind with the laser pointer — pouncing around, flailing, running into walls to catch it and working himself into a tizzy. Lucy had no reaction. At all.

So maybe it is a test of intelligence for a dog. Like how some dogs will chase after a ball that you pretend to throw — even if you didn't actually throw it. Or some dogs will act like an ice cube disappearing into a bowl of lukewarm water is pure sorcery.

There's also the wall test.

They're all good boys and girls, though.

📩 Email: amber.harding@outkick.com
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OutKick Nightcaps is a daily column set to run Monday through Friday at 4 p.m.