Rod's Alter Ego

There's No Place Like Home

By the time we heard the second gunshot Lucy was off and running.

But not in the direction we'd come from, somewhere back there where Master was probably calling and whistling for us. No, we were headed off in a new direction, beyond the reach of where we'd been before, way beyond where we are allowed to go. But the gun scared me a little, too, so when Lucy took off I followed her.

...

It all began about twenty five minutes earlier. Master, Lucy, and I went to the Farm for our usual Saturday morning run off leash. We had just rounded the old cement bunker, about halfway into our walk through the wooded trails. Like we usually do at that spot Lucy and I peeled off, to run a little deeper into the woods, behind a small hill into a shallow valley, to hunt and mess around. I'm not sure why really, but this day we ran further than usual. Before long we found ourselves at the far end of the woods, a steep hill before us, with houses at the bottom. We'd been here once before, and that time Master had to come and find us, and when he did he wasn't too happy. I remember that.

So there we were again. And that's when Lucy spotted the deer and gave chase. I tried to keep up with her. Down the hill we went, past the houses, around a wide open field and back into some more woods. We stopped when the deer were out of range and we were out of breath. We could see a house or two through the trees, so we started to wander in that direction. The woods were thick there, too. I was still tired from running and so was Lucy, so we continued to wander through the woods to catch our wind. It dawned on me that I didn't know where we were. I looked back to try and ascertain where we'd come from, but I was confused. We better get back to Master, I thought, but how? Where? We wandered around in the woods for quite a while. We were definitely lost. I could see another house a ways up through the woods. We started to walk toward it and when we got closer that's when the gunshots came. Pow! Are they shooting at us?! ... Pow... Pow!!!

There were at least five shots in all. All I know is I was trying to stay up with Lucy. We were both running full out now, in which direction I had no idea. But at some point we started going downhill, and then we were moving faster still. For how long I don't really know. Ultimately, we slowed down, and before much longer we popped out of the woods, crossed over a ditch and found ourselves next to a road with cars coming in both directions. We kept moving down hill, sticking close to the road, but slower now. Cars kept passing by. We were definitely lost big time.

More time had past when finally we made it to the bottom of the hill. It was decision time, a four-way stop. Lucy ventured on to the road and I followed, crossing through the intersection. We could see cars stop for us. Once through the intersection we stayed on the road. We were walking down the center line when a truck coming at us suddenly pulled off to the shoulder. An upright (whose name we later learned was Tim) stepped out, got a hold of us by our collars and hustled us off onto the shoulder, and held us there on the grass. He read the name and phone number on our tags, called our home phone number and left a message he'd found us. I reckoned it was about an hour since we'd last seen Master.

We knew we were in trouble when all of a sudden there's Master getting out of some stranger's car on the opposite side of the street. He appeared half shaken, half relieved, and about as cheery as a nun in a brothel.

Turns out he'd been walking all over hell and creation looking for us. Ultimately, a gut feeling led him down the same hill where we had given chase to the deer. There he saw an older women on the porch of one of the houses. She encouraged him to go to the neighborhood police station, to ask them if they'd seen Lucy and me, and even offered to walk him over there. Desperate, he took her advice and together they tromped through the mud (it had started to rain) to the police station. When they got there the lady rang the back door buzzer to get the attention of the only cop on duty. Just as he opened the door a car pulled up, a man got out and looked at Master and asked, "Are you missing two dogs?" Yes?!, he said. The man said he'd just seen us headed down Fairmont Boulevard, a pretty busy rural road, and Master knew it. Feeling panic, he quickly asked him for a ride to where he'd last seen us.

Moral of the story: Next time you're running away and feeling free, don't forget to pause now and again to remember how good you have it back there. It's a dangerous world; you're not likely to always run into people as nice as Tim.

Lucy and me at the Farm, November 2007.