Good morning Vikings.
Hope you all had a very safe and fun 4th.
Work has been weighing heavily on my time as of late, so I apologize for my absence. But I see you have all pressed on, as it should be.
Let me tell you what happened to me on Monday evening.
This requires a back story, so get comfortable. Ok, for those of you who have read my TR, you know my family. Or to be more precise, my wifes family. For those of you who havent, shame. This is what you get for not playing along, good luck knowing who anyone is in this story.
Anyway, Monday evening, my wife and I are lying on the couch watching Treasure Hunters. Actually, my wife is watching Treasure Hunters and I am enduring Treasure Hunters. Cause I am a good husband.
I was really in a pretty foul mood. Im not entirely sure why, but that is irrelevant
sort of.
All of a sudden, someone is banging on our front door and ringing the doorbell. This is odd, cause no one who knows us ever comes to the front door. We always come in the back. So my wife gets up and goes to the door and it is Chase. He is in a panic. He wants to know where I am cause they need my help. They, in this case, is Chase and his cousin. Chase tells me that Lucy (their puppy (roughly 6 months old)) is loose and they need me to catch her.
Here is where the back story comes in.
Lucy is, in fact, the third puppy they have had in 18 months. The first, Hunter, was a German Shepard mix that died one day when they let him out to do his business. We were never sure what happened, he came home and acted very sick and finally succumbed. He either got into something that he shouldnt have, or someone poisoned him. Either is entirely possible in our neighborhood.
The boys, obviously, took this loss very hard. They went without a dog for a while and then got Scamp a few days after we got Zedd, from the same breeder. Scamp was a little black Scottish Terrier / Miniature Poodle mix. He and Zedd used to run around and play and nearly kill each other for hours on end. One day when they let Scamp out to do his business, he didnt come back. They missed him after some time and went looking for him. They found him about half-way between their house and ours. We live on the same street, a few houses apart. We assume he had been hit by a car although he showed no real signs of outward distress. Scamp and Zedd knew where each other lived. They had visited each other on several occasions. We have looked out our back window before and seen Scamp standing there wagging his tail, happily asking if Zedd could come out and play. This time, evidently, he didnt quite make it to our house.
We all took this hard.
So they wait a couple of months and get Lucy. She is a Boston Terrier / Rat Terrier mix. White with black splotches all over. Kristie has made a rule. Lucy DOES NOT leave the house without a leash. A very prudent rule, I would say.
So, back to Monday evening. Chase is in our yard telling me that Lucy is out. I look to the corner of our yard and see a little black and white flash disappear around the trees, headed up the road. I grab our bag of dog food, you gotta bribe females, and head out. Chase sees me and starts running after Lucy. I told him not to run, he would scare her and she wouldnt come to us.
We gotta hurry, he said, she might die.
And so, I take off after the dog. Determined not to let my nephews attain the trifecta of dead dogs. Chase and his cousin stay with Jen.
So Lucy is a long way ahead of me and trotting happily up the road.
I try calling to her.
She turns and looks at me, then starts running.
This is very odd as Lucy is generally a very loving dog that falls all over herself to get attention.
Ok, I start to jog to keep up. I follow Lucy for roughly 3 miles. All the while calling, coaxing, begging, pleading, cursing the dog, while mentally willing my wife to bring the truck.
Every time I would call out to her or she would turn and see that I was still behind her, she would start running again. Now I am not in the best of shape, so I was tired of running after the first session, let alone 3 miles later.
Toward the end of the second mile, Lucy had taken a left down a dirt road. A mile later, there is a cross roads. It is an undeveloped part of our neighborhood. You can go left or right, but both options are dirt roads as well. If you go straight, you have a hundred yards or so and then the road ends. Lucy went straight. Thank God. If she had gone left or right, I would no doubt, still be chasing her.
There were a couple of bulldozers on the side of the road where they are developing the area. I took advantage of the cover to approach Lucy while she didnt see me.
When I got to the bulldozer, she came running around the other side and I discovered something. This was the first time I had been within 40 yards of Lucy and something became immediately apparent.
THIS WAS NOT LUCY.
Thats right, I had spent 3 miles chasing a different white dog with black splotches. This one looked to be a Jack Russell mix of some sort.
I was just pleased as punch. I sat down and sang a chorus of Kumbaya.
Not really. In all actuality, I thought some very bad things.
And started the trek back to the house. Thankfully, I had only gotten about half-way back when Kristie met me in her van.
Lucy is in the back seat, she said. Im sure, I replied.
And so, you will all be happy to know, Lucy is safe. I learned later that not too long after I left, it was determined that I was chasing the wrong dog, but as I had not thought to grab my cell on the way out, they couldnt tell me. I had been gone half an hour or so, and Chase comes up to Jen crying.
She asked him what was wrong and he said, Im afraid hes dead.
She asked him, Who? and he said, Paul.
So you will also be happy to know that I, too, am alive
tired, but alive.
Good Morning!!!!!
