Scrappy Saves the Day...er...uhm... welll...

In case any of you ever get involved with a telepathic dog like mine, guard your thoughts.  If you think, as soon as I get done with this, I might take him a walk-  if it takes you an hour to get done, and you really don't want to go for a walk anymore, HE REMEMBERS.

Now that you know about the first part of the evening, let me tell you about the walk.  This is a tale of a series of events that even as I predicted, they went wrong.  But, if not for Scrappy's walk, it might not have turned out so well.  We were on our side of the street, heading towards the park.  In the lot across the street, I noticed two young girls trying to catch a dog.  The older girl was maybe ten; the little one might have been pushing 4.  First assumption- if we keep moving, Scrappy and the other dog might not notice each other.  I got a half-point on that one- Scrappy did not see her.  But she saw him.  With the little one hot on her tail, and the big girl lagging back, the other dog ran up to the curb.

Second assumption: freeze in place.  The dog will stop, and the older girl will catch her, before anyone attempted to cross the street.  Now I should point out that the dog was just a puppy, a wiry white thing with brown ears that had a good 4 inches at the shoulder on Scrappy (though Scrappy had a good 20 lbs on her).  Anyhow, of course, the dog comes bouncing across the street, little girl hot in pursuit.  A good third assumption would have been that at least the road isn't busy- but of course at this point in time, it was as busy as I ever see it.

Fourth assumption, and the fifth hot on its heels, would be that the other dog (whose name I never did catch- I thought the girls were calling "Sasha", but the name the little girl told me didn't match up) would busy itself jumping up and down on an appreciative Scrappy, and that when she did, the older girl would cross the street and catch her.  Of course, the dog was content jumping within about 4 feet of Scrappy and bounding away, and the girl never crossed the street; in addition, I was being distracted by the little girl wanting to pet Scrappy (who jumped up and licked her face) and telling me for the first of about five times during the incident that I could pet her dog (if I could do that, I'd have caught the damn thing!).  So I thought maybe I could talk to the dog.  I said to the dog, "Where is your collar?"  To which the older girl replied, "It was too small."  I didn't have time to properly WTF that, because just then the dog re-crossed the street (with an oncoming car), and before I could get the words, "Wait, honey, there's a car coming," out, the little girl was right behind her.

Thankfully, throughout the incident, the cars oncoming were paying attention, and both made it safely across.  At this point, I made my one correct assumption- I looked at Scrappy and said, "We need to cross the street before someone gets killed!"  Once we crossed the street, Scrappy continued to try to sniff the dog, the dog continued to play a two-pronged game of hopscotch between Scrappy and the older girl, and the little girl continued to assure me I could pet her dog while I tried to keep Scrappy from taking her out with his line.  Finally the two dogs stopped to eye each other... and just as the older girl was about to snag her, Scrappy barked and she took off again.  Another assumption failed- Scrappy will actually be helpful in catching her.

Finally, I sat Scrappy down and took hold of his collar.  "Maybe if I sit down with him, "I said, "she'll come up and you can get her."  And finally, I was right again- twice in eight tries.  The older girl scooped her up, they both told us, "Thank You" for the tons of help we were, and ran on home.  I kept an eye out to make sure that they got the dog inside, and Scrappy and I went home to nurse our near coronaries.

As I told Laurie the story, the WTFs came up.  "Her collar was too small?"  Does this mean that they took her out without a collar, or did she mix it up and mean the collar was too big and she got out?  In either event, where were the parents??? I wouldn't have left these two out by themselves without supervision even if they weren't chasing a dog.  The fact that I never once heard the older girl yell at the younger when she crossed the street bears out my wisdom here.  My message to any parent or baby sitter out there is- if you are having a quiet chat on your cell, or a peaceful game on the wii, or you've spent a blissful few minutes on Farmland without being interrupted- ASK YOURSELF WHY!!!  If a drunk driver would have come tearing through at that point- or the hell with drunk, just distracted or in too much of a hurry to obey the posted speed- Jesus, as it was the dog was nearly hit three times and the child once.

I guess, if nothing else, it was a good time for Scrappy to want a walk.  To which Scrappy replies, "they're all good times!"

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Before I go tonight, a fellow blogger, J. Day at The Ramblings Of Charlie Brown,  has come up with an idea.  Seeings as all we ever get in the mail anymore are bills and junk mail, she misses the days when she, and I, and perhaps you, had pen pals.  To alleviate this, she has created:

The great postcard campaign!  Basically, a bunch of us are turning our faith and our addresses over to her, and once a month she'll name one of us to send little postcards of joy to all the rest.  We've got a pretty nice little group going, and members from as far away as Australia (ooooh!!!)  If you are interested, hit the link above and get with our fearless leader about the details.