Absurd Moments with Your Dog

When Duffy was a puppy, he escaped the house and ended up in the neighbor's yard barking frantically at the Virgin Mary statue.

He escaped another time and raced into the road to chase a large truck that was attempting to turn the corner near our house.  "STOP!" I shouted to the truck as my little black dog trotted up to it. I caught up to Duffy and he ran from me.  Then in the middle of the intersection (another car had stopped by this point), he and I faced off.  He wanted to get past me to the truck.  He went left- I went left.  It was much like a cow-pony cuts a cow from the herd, then competes to see if he can keep the cow out.  (See video here if you don't know what I mean.)  After a couple more feints left and right, I dove on him in the middle of the road.

Photo by Wild Fillies Photography

The man who was stepping out of his truck to help me me cheered for me and said, "Impressive!"

I was chasing after the dog in rain boots- not the best for running, pivoting and diving, but...

This isn't the first time I've held up traffic.  Once, when I was shakily rollerblading toward an intersection... well, here is the story how I previously blogged about it:

The rollerblading incident: I’m not a good rollerblader, so I left my street to cross an intersection to another neighborhood with hardly any traffic. I rolled up to the 3 way stop between at the end of my neighborhood, which is pretty busy as the offices nearby let out. As I roll up, so do three other cars. Well, I can’t stop, so I hold out my arms in a grand “STOP PLEASE, COMING THROUGH” gesture. I take maybe three strides, then hit some gravel and TOTALLY WIPE OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE INTERSECTION, landing right on my back. Well, the cars can’t very well drive over me, so they have to wait while I look up at the sky for a moment, carefully pick myself up, and roll away. This wasn’t one of those “when you look back on it, it’s really funny” incidents. It was really, really funny at the time.

Puppies: Not as Glamorous as They Sound

Puppy.

The word sounds so fun and carefree.

Puppy.  Puppies!  We got a puppy!

The first day or two was euphoric.  The puppy was really cuddly and would want sit right beside us. We walked him in the backyard.  We played chase.  The kids took turns walking him.  We drove places in the car with him.  We didn't go out to eat so we could spend more time with the puppy.  We bought cute dog harnesses and toys at PetSmart.

Then reality set in and I realized just how much work this puppy was going to be.

When the dog peed on BOTH children's beds that first weekend, I said, "Good thing he's cute!"  His snuggles made up for all the times he had "accidents" on the floor.  Actually, he seems to think he is supposed to go to the bathroom indoors, which is FINE if he pees on the pad, but not if he goes over and pees near Lane's toy kitchen.  Or on the throw blanket.  Or on the couch.  Or on my husband's backpack.  Or on the new bathroom rug.  You get the picture.