Tales of a runaway dog.

[dare_devil007]

Today, Dare_Mother decided it was time to do a little of cleaning around the house. She decided to work her way from the bottom up. So, she walked downstairs and began sweeping the front area. Deciding she would leave the door open so she could sweep out the dust, she called Dare_Devil and told her to make sure the Dare_Dog, Cherry, would not run out.

So, Dare_Devil took Cherry in her arms and sat at the computer, browsing the many wonders of the Internet. For the most longest time, Cherry was quiet and still. But, suddenly, she heard the neighbour’s dog barking and without a moment’s warning or hesitation, she called out, “Adios, Dare_Devil!” and leapt out of her arms. Waving her arms like a crazed teenage girl who had snakes crawling up her pants, Dare_Devil ran after Cherry downstairs. Unfortunately, Cherry was out the door before Dare_Mother could stop her.

Being the silly and disobedient dog she is, Cherry would not come back into the house, despite the pleadings and tasty snacks offered by Dare_Devil and Dare_Mother. No, you see, Cherry wanted to be free! She wanted to run around the streets to her heart’s content with the breeze blowing through her fur and her ears flapping in the wind. However, Dare_Devil remembered that the only thing Cherry would respond to was…

…the CAR.

So, Dare_Mother turned the car on and Dare_Devil hopped in, in hopes that Cherry would be dumb enough to fall for their ruse. You see, the one thing that Cherry can’t resist is her people going off somewhere in that clunky metal machine without her. She just has to go in and she’ll be damned before they go somewhere without her. Well, they always do, but anyways. So, Dare_Devil left the passenger side door open and sure enough, Cherry was dumb enough to fall for it and hopped in.

Afterwards, much spiteful and dirty looks from Dare_Mother followed and Cherry being forced to sit in her travel cage for ten minutes as punishment for running out. However, Dare_Devil couldn’t bear to see Cherry, who was hanging her head in shame and burying her nose in her front paws in embarrassment, in such a state, so she let her out after five minutes of confinement.

Thank Og we live in suburbia and not downtown because during the day, our streets are basically empty.

Anyone else have strange tales of your dog(s)/pet(s) scaring you half to death and forcing you to look like a fool, even though nobody’s around?

[psycat90]

Yep, I’ve got one.

My boys and I had a dachsund when we lived in central PA, a very small town just outside of State College. He never really ran off, he was an OK dog in that respect, but for some reason or another, one day as we were leaving the house, he ran out. He’d run out of the house before, for the same reason your dog did, because he wanted to hop in the car to come along wherever we were going, so, I didn’t think much of it and figured I’d just scoop him up and put him back in the house. But he didn’t run for the car this time, he ran around the side of our apt. And he disappeared in a flash. And he stayed missing for nearly 2 full days. I called and called and whistled and whistled. I tried the starting the car trick. Nothing. I hardly slept that night I was so worried about the little brat. The next morning the boys and I searched and searched again, I called the animal shelter and reported him missing, I called the local radio station who made an announcement describing him. At work I made missing posters that I was going to post all over town. I was *going * to post all over town. I never needed to. As I was getting in my car, posters and staple gun in hand, for some reason I looked over to my left.

To the left of our apartment was a creek. A decent sized creek, too deep to wade across most likely, with a small island in the center. So, just as I look over, I see the sun catch something brown on the island, and right there staring at me is Nathan, wagging his tail like mad as soon as he realized I’d seen him and called his name.

Now, dachsunds can swim, but they’re not the greatest at it, for obvious reasons. There were a couple of swans that lived in the area of the island, and I’m guessing that’s what prompted him to brave the water in the first place, to chase the swans. But now, my calling to him and urging him to come back to shore wasn’t enough motivation to get him back in the water to swim home. So, not knowing anyone with a small boat, and not wanting to brave the water of the creek, I called the Fire Dept.

They showed up and laid a ladder across the water, from the shore to the island. One of the guys walked across the ladder, and attempted to pick up Nathan. A nice sized crowd from around town had gathered on the pedestrian walkway of the bridge that crosses the creek by this time. It took a few attempts for the man to pick him up, since Nathan didn’t like strangers and was growling and being a little shit in general.

Finally the man was able to snatch him up. All of the on-lookers began clapping, my boys were jumping up and down, and I was just hanging my head in embarrasment over the spectacle that little dog had just made. Still, I can’t tell you how utterly relieved I was to have him home and safe. Once the firefighter put him in my arms, I nearly cried I was so happy, and he was wriggling and excited, it was obvious he was just as happy to be home. We brought him in the house, where he ate and drank and then crashed hard on my son’s bed for the night. And I got to hear the entire incident replayed on the local radio station, since they wanted to follow up with their earlier announcement. :smack:

He was a cute dog. Sometimes I still miss the little rascal.