Last Friday evening I took the dogs for a walk. Molly was clearly quite energetic and started to run. For a while I was able to keep up with her and then disaster struck – she suddenly hit the accelerator and I lost my grip on her lead. I ran down the street, not keeping up but managing to keep her in sight. At the end of the street is a block of flats and she stopped there – all good so far. We (I had Sancho with me as well) got to the flats just as she raced down the side path. Just then Sancho needed to stop for a wee. I tried to keep my eye on Molly and thinking the flats would have an enclosed back yard I wasn’t too concerned. Once Sancho finished we followed Molly down the back of the flats into a nightmare.
Not only was the backyard not enclosed but there wasn’t a backyard – the building backed directly onto national park.Finding there were a couple of paths and no sign of Molly I started to panic. Following each path and calling her found me going around in circles. It was getting dark and I started to have visions of not being able to find her. The bush around me was very thick and if she’d gone into it there was no way I could follow. Besides I didn’t know which way she’d gone. More and more panicky thoughts were running through my head – owners coming back in a couple of days, no way to find her in this bush, she could go ANYWHERE…..
What to do??? First thing was stop and take a deep breath. I asked Sancho “Where’s Molly?” – hey I was verging on hysteria – asking a dog a question seemed like the most rational thing to do. Anyway, as it turned out, it was.
Sancho headed back up towards the flats in a direction I didn’t think would be right. However, I had asked and not having any better ideas I followed. Shortly, further up the hill, I saw Molly race past. Relief – at least we had her in sight and she hadn’t disappeared into the bush.
Now, the paths formed a large loop. So, very soon I’m chasing Molly around in a circle – I’m sure she thought it was a great game. Eventually another clear thought worked its way through. “Keep still and she’ll come to you.” I stopped and kept calling to her. Finally, she decided the game was over and sat down. At last I had a hold of her lead (very tightly) and we’re off back home – enough excitement for one evening.
When we got home Danita commented about how we’d been gone for such a short time – the whole episode must have only lasted a few minutes. For me it was the longest “short” walk I’ve ever been on.