I'm in the middle of cleaning up my desk. It's an awful mess, and I really can't get much work done in this environment. However, I hate cleaning it so much that any little distraction is welcome. That's part of why Maggie always says it's good to do these things in stages. Get a little done, feel good about it, and come back to it later. As long as you can come back to it later.
As I was trying to decide what to do with some old pay stubs, Maggie was taking K to her cello lesson. She pulled out of the driveway, and I placed the stubs down somewhere that was definitely not their final destination, a small admission of temporary defeat. I heard Maggie stop the car across the street and get out.
"What's wrong?" I yelled down to her from the office window. I could see her wandering in the street.
"Rex has gotten loose somehow, but I can't get him." Rex is our neighbor Tim's dog, a friendly brown mutt who patrols the corner from behind the safety of Tim's fence.
As Maggie drove off, I decided I'd go out and see what I could do.
I'm not much of a dog person, but last week we'd had an encounter with another neighborhood dog that colored my perceptions about how easy it is to retrieve a loose canine. During some yard work I turned around to find a small dog trying to make friends with me. He appeared to be some sort of corgi. In retrospect, he may simply have been trying to herd me. Hard to say now.
The corgi's name was Max, and he was keen on checking out our house and convincing us that we were sheep. Max borrowed our back yard for a little while waiting for someone to come pick him up. In the end, the dog officer got to the house before the owners did, but we were happy that we'd kept our furry visitor safe from the perils of the road.
Rex, Tim's dog, was nowhere to be found. I wandered up the street calling his name. He ran out from some bushes and acted like a dog, coming near to sniff me, but then immediately running away and around me. He could tell I wanted to take him back home and he wanted none of that. At one point, I called to him and I got him to follow me halfway back to his house, but then he just took off again.
I walked back to Tim's house and saw that the gate had gotten open. I figured I'd take one more shot at convincing Rex to come close, but I didn't have a leash. I'm sure I could have improvised something, but I am uncomfortable putting ropes around other people's dogs, even if I'm trying to help.
Luckily, another neighbor, Mr. Murray, saw that Rex was out and came up to help. Rex was more familiar with him. As we walked to a side street where we thought Rex had gone, we discussed Max as well, and he let me know where Max lives (good to know if we ever encounter him again). Apparently, the same dogs have a tendency to get loose in this neighborhood.
When we found Rex he was still reluctant to be lead back. He ran up to me again, but then swung off and bolted toward a woman and her daughter who were standing with a cat.
Rex chased the cat (Sabrina) up a nearby tree before running up to the woman who simply grabbed his collar. She was apparently familiar with him, because she called him by name.
Meanwhile, I tried to coax Sabrina from the tree. I was about 6 inches from reaching her, but she remained motionless, shooting me a "You have got to be kidding me" expression. I was so intent on trying to get the cat down that I failed to introduce myself to the woman who had collared Rex. As she handed him over to Mr. Murray, she told me that Sabrina belonged to a neighbor and that she'd eventually come down from the perch.
That was my cue. Dog and cat were safe, and my attempt at help was pretty irrelevant. I am just not that good with pets.
Posted by James at July 13, 2009 3:32 PMSome dogs will run away if you approach then, but will chase you if you make a big show of running away from them. Alas, Polly was too smart to fall for that one.
She did used to run away once in a while; I found that the only way to get her to come back was to lure her into my car with the promise of a ride. Sucker. Same with my sister's dogs.
Maybe she would have come back on her own eventually, but I didn't want to give her a chance to bite a kid or get run over.
Posted by: Julie at July 13, 2009 5:06 PMI rescued Rex once, but it was with the aid of a piece of pizza that was upside down in the road. I didn't want to be late for K's cello lesson and there were no obliging bits of food in the road. But with a road like that, why not get loose?? You never know what you'll find!
Posted by: Maggie at July 13, 2009 5:47 PMHere's how it happened with Rex:
At one point I called to him from about 60 feet away and he stopped. I clapped, leaned over, slapped my knees and called, and he trotted toward me. He sped up, and i began to walk and then jog backwards. I figured he might like to chase me so I started running. At that point he smelled a rat, and took off.
In any case, I was really worried he might get hit and glad once he was back in his yard.
Posted by: James at July 13, 2009 9:28 PM