Finding Home

I had a rather random, scary, and sort of funny experience earlier this evening when I was walking my four legged nephew. Butkus is a young 120ish pound French Mastiff who likes to eat, walk, sleep, eat, play, groom himself, sleep, eat, and go to the bathroom. Ah, a dog's life...

Okay, so I was walking Butkus and we hadn't gone too far when he stopped to go to the bathroom. After he was done doing his business I was rather surgically and carefully picking up his poo in a Hefty bag like any good dog owner, or, in my case, any good dog aunt would do. And by the way, picking up poop is one of those gross things that no longer becomes gross because you have to do it and because you've become accustomed to doing it.

Anyway, as I'm doing this I noticed that a cute little Corgi was following us. He was loose, but was wearing a collar and dog tag. I was quite sure that he was the pooch that lived relatively near by, so I was trying to figure out how I could get a hold of him while simultaneously keeping Butkus completely oblivious to the whole situation. This, of course, was not going to happen and suddenly Butkus reared his big, ole drooling head and caught a glimpse of the Corgi.

Butkus did not bark, but he excitedly lunged toward the small dog and was trying to get to him. I had know idea what he would do once he did get to the dog because the only other dog I've seen him interact with was a female French Mastiff in heat, naturally he liked her. I tried holding my ground and began instructing--a.k.a. yelling at--Butkus to calm down and behave. To spite me, he lunged forward in a great burst of energy and I lost my footing enough for him to gain a couple of feet of ground. In reaction to this the Corgi, who was running back and forth, yelped and took off to my left in a panic stricken frenzy.

This sent Butkus in a chasing rage, which spun me around and thus sent the three of us tearing down a knoll towards a main road in our neighborhood. I looked at the street only to see that, to my horror, a black coupe was headed our way. It was the first time in my life where, despite the fact that I'm horrible at math, I calculated exactly when the "two trains" would meet.

I screamed, "NO! NO! NO! STOP! STOP!" and flailed my leash free right hand in the air, which I should mention was clutching the bag of poop that I had managed to secure prior to all of this action. Thankfully the car screeched to a very abrupt halt and the unscathed Corgi continued in his scared sprint across the street.

When I saw that the car had stopped and that the dog had also ran away apparently free of injury, I attempted to come to a stop myself. Instead I was propelled forward by Butkus who was still trying to "play" with the Corgi. I flew and I mean literally flew face first towards the ground where my left knee sort of broke my fall. I then rolled onto my back and was pulled a few more feet by Butkus before I was able to finally capture his attention with a swift jerk on his leash.

I'd like to again bring your attention back to the bag o' poop... I did not drop it.

Once stopped, I climbed back to my feet and the young man driving climbed out of his car. He was obviously shaken and exclaimed, "OMIGOD LADY!" Note: I am only 22 and do not need to be called lady in that regard. But he was nice and he picked up my cell phone from off of the ground, which had fallen out of my pocket when I fell. I tried to explain the situation and then after a minute or so he asked me on a date and we lived happily ever after. No, no, I'm just kidding. But wouldn't that be quite the fairy tale? Anyway, after a minute or so we parted ways.

If any onlooker saw this whole fiasco it must have been a nail biting comedic experience... Me, the dogs. Me trying to calm the dogs down, the dogs not calming down. All of us running in the dark. The car stopping in the nick of time. Me gracefully falling, or what I would like to imagine gracefully falling looks like. Me being dragged. The bag of poop. (Thank you, Hefty, for your durable garbage bags.)

Anyway, everyone was fine, but at the same time I was sad because the Corgi was still wandering around and it was getting late and cold. I brought Butkus back home and tried to go find the pup' in the general vicinity of where I saw him last, but to no avail. However, I think that I did hear him crying so that makes me sad even now. I truly hope he managed his way home, or that he was found and is now safe with his family.

We all need to find home.