We have a country block that we frequently walk. It mainly consists of cornfields with the occasional house along our route. Throughout the years, we've encountered many farm dogs on our walks. Some bark at us until we're past their property and others come out for visits and belly rubs and occasionally stick with us until the edge of their property and then they stroll back to their house.
What we've never had happen, is a dog come out to greet us and then refuse to leave us. Until Sunday.
It takes us roughly an hour and a half to walk our block and we had exactly 2 hours before we needed to pick Caymen up for work, so we decided to go for our walk.
At the halfway point, we passed a house with an old friendly dog that
we know who came out to greet us and he brought a friend. A younger playful dog we'd never met before. (Emoji to protect his anonymity.) So Ron did his dodge and weave game that all dogs love and then we tried to leave. Except
this dog decided that he'd come too and no amount of persuasion was convincing him to stay.
Time was ticking, so I finally walked up to the house and knocked but no one was home. So what do we do now? We could maybe see if the door's unlocked and put him inside? Worst case scenario, he trashes their house. Nah. Too risky in this world of cameras. So with cameras in mind, Ron did hand gestures to the dog making it very clear that we're not trying to
take your dog, but we've got a daughter to pick up from work, so the
real worst case scenario is that your new dog might be coming with us and we're all just gonna have to be ok with that. I mean, we'll bring him back. We don't actually
want your dog.
So "Dog" came with us. (We had to call him something and it was short notice.)
About a half mile down the road, we passed a house with goats and Dog ran up and down their fence wreaking absolute havoc on them. I'm yelling "DOG! DOG! NAUGHTY DOG" while Ron's behind me making wheezing noises. I turned around and yelled "What the hell are you doing?" He calmly replied, "I'm trying to whistle. My mouth is dry."
So if these people are home, they're seeing their goats being terrorized by what appears to be our dog, who we apparently named DOG, while my husband stands in the middle of the road panting like he's in labor.
Well. There's a worst case scenario we didn't think of.
We decided to keep walking and Dog eventually lost interest in the goats and began chasing after us.
As we approached the next house, I saw the chickens. Roaming freely around their front yard.
You've got to be kidding me. These worst case scenarios are escalating.
We already have a dog and a dead chicken scandal in our past, but that's a story for another day.
Time was seriously ticking and we officially didn't have time for this. We decided I would continue home by myself to get the van and Ron would go back and wait in Dog's yard until I picked him up. At this point, I'd have to jog the rest of the way home in order to pick Caymen up in time.
That's when I got a text from Caymen. "Good news, I'm getting off early."
No offense Caymen, but that's literally the worst of the cases of scenarios of all of our worst case scenarios to this point.
And then I remembered that Aubrey and Nick live nearby, so I frantically called her and filled her in with a flurry of words about Dog, goats, chickens, and Caymen, to which Nick replied "This could seriously only happen to you guys." Not helpful, Nick. Not.Helpful.
When she told me they were on their way home and only a few minutes away from where we were, I gave her directions to Dog's house and then I went back to walking toward home.
In the meantime, a lady who noticed Ron and Dog walking down the road stopped her car and asked if he needed help. He briefly explained what was happening and she generously handed him a piece of pizza out of the box she was bringing home for dinner...presumably to help distract the dog into staying in his yard, but I can't imagine a scenario where Ron would ever willingly hand over an entire piece of pizza to a dog.
Thankfully Aubrey swooped in and saved the day. She picked up her dad, then caught up and dropped him back off with me before going to pick Caymen up from work for us. Ron told me how Dog chased after them as they pulled away.
Ok. So killing Dog in front of his house would legit be the worst case scenario.
Good thing that didn't happen either.
My therapist says I "castastrophize." Whatever.
Anyway, we can no longer take that walking route, for obvious reasons. But according to this Facebook post in our neighborhood watch group I saw yesterday, it sounds like Dog is keeping himself pretty busy.
Probably out looking for the cool guy he split a piece of pizza with in his front yard.
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