Lost Dog

The boys and I were out walking around the block. Calfgrit3 was a dinosaur stalking the neighborhood, and Calfgrit7 was an explorer. On our trek we saw a dog wandering around. The dog was loose but not a stray — it had a collar.

We watched it run around ahead of us for a while, but it kept going the same direction we were going, so we weren’t catching up to it. It strolled back and forth across the road, and I was afraid it would be hit by a car. The road isn’t heavily traveled, but it is a thoroughfare between the neighborhoods, so the cars that do drive down it go fairly fast. (It’s posted as 35, but everyone drives 45.)

The boys and I set about trying to catch up to the dog. I had my cell phone with me, so we thought we could call its owner after we caught it and checked its tag. We ended up following it for about 50 yards before we finally got close enough to get its attention. But then it ran through some bushes and got away.

Oh well, we couldn’t help it. Then a minute later it appeared 50 more yards ahead of us, back out on the sidewalk. We tried to catch up to it again, and this time I got it to approach me. I held out my fist to let it smell me. It took a couple of sniffs and before I could get ahold of its collar, it bolted away.

It ran fast and far, back the direction we had just come. Then it ran across the street into the other neighborhood. Oh well, again. The boys were excited about trying to help it, and I would love to have rescued it. We used to have a dog, and she got out of the yard and wondered through the neighborhood once or twice, too.

If I was alone, I would have followed this dog and tried again to catch it. But with the boys, I couldn’t. Calfgrit7 could have kept up with me and he knows safety, but Calfgrit3 is too young to be running with me along a road like that.

I hope the dog eventually found his way back home. He was a pretty dog, obviously well cared for and probably loved by a family. But he was just so flighty, and fast he could get a long distance quickly without realizing it, and he may never get back home.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com