Today I am thanking the dear lord for watching over me and my four legged friends! I have said it before, I am the person that will, without a seconds thought, run in front of a bus to prevent it from hitting a dog. The first time I remember doing this was for Mary, the next door neighbour’s German Shephard …I was around nine or ten at the time. Over the years I have bolted in to traffic many times in an effort to prevent some terrified pooch from getting smoked. What happened to me today, I am hoping, will be the icing on the cake. First off, I normally wear runners when I dog walk, but my right shoe was giving me blisters in two spots so I traded them in for my sandals, which are a bit loosy goosey on me, but fine for the client I was about to walk, or so I thought. I went over and got my little charge, she is a senior dog, who likes to meander and take her time sniffing when we walk. She has a harness type contraption that her leash attaches too, which seemed fairly secure to me, she doesn’t pull when we walk, and is never in any rush to get anywhere. We headed out, all was good, she did her business and I had this idea to walk up to a spot where I know there is a garbage can, then thought, well, let’s head over to my favourite park. Just as we were nearing the entrance I could sense she was starting to have a differing opinion of what direction we should go, I thought if I could just get her down the path she would realize how quiet it was and the traffic noises would die away…much to my horror she backed up and pulled and that harness went right over her body! I can’t even relay what the next five minutes of my life and hers were like. I knew instinctively she was going to run headlong into that busy two lane road, and she did, with me on her tail…I had stepped into her harness and I was now trying to run after her with it around my leg, her leash between my legs. I remember seeing a truck and I bolted out in front of it, my right arm out begging him to stop. She made it to the side walk, I was determined to stay with her, as we went around a bend there was a young man and his Bernese Mountain dog, He saw her running with this wild woman flailing her arms in hot pursuit and thought he would try and help catch her. I knew what was coming,she was in flight mode, she is afraid of other dogs and she was going to dash into the road again. I looked over my shoulder and could see a vehicle, I put my arm out and darted in front of them to prevent them from hitting her, as we were running down the middle of the road I was praying she’d get back on the side walk and not across into oncoming traffic. Thankfully, she did and found the path that goes into our subdivision. She stopped there for a few minutes and I sat on the ground hoping she would coming to me if I sat still. We stared at each other for a few moments and I tried to sound soothing (but my breath was pretty ragged from running), she cocked her head and when her eyes locked with mine I could read the next message. “Have you caught your breath? Because I am ready to go again.” She turned and bolted, she ran across another street and up a side street to a path through another park, almost getting into a tousle with a Beagle and then a Spaniel who was there with a group of day care kids. I was loosing steam, but realized she wasn’t trying to loose me, she was making sure I was following but there was no way she was going to let me catch her. We got within a block from her house and she was running along the side walk when she realized her cul de sac was ahead, so back she went into the street. I saw a van coming up the road and again, arm out stretched ran right in front him praying his eyes were on the road and not looking at a cell phone. He gave me quite the look, all I could think was “Buddy, I know I am an imbecile, but this dog is NOT coming to any harm on my watch!” We made it back to the house unscathed, but now she wouldn’t go in the front door for me, but was willing to go through the side gate into the back yard. She was safe, I went in through the house to let her in the back slider and as I opened the glass she was wagging her tail and pranced in and darted past me, perching herself on the back of the couch! I gave her a little scratch under her chin and a peck on her head. Geriatric dogs should not be under estimated!! I am grateful we had an angel on our shoulders that protected us from four wheeled mayhem, things could have gone very differently, but they didn’t. I can’t adequately express how grateful I am to sit down at my computer and write this blog, with a happy ending!!!
No Time To Paws 