Friggin Dog

I love Jack, I really do, but that damn dog really pushes me to my wits end sometimes. Then again, so does the stupidity of those around me.

Jack is known for a tendency of running off if you're not careful, and he's smart like a child. And if you give a kid an inch... Yeah, you get where I'm going.

So anyways, Mom has been letting Jack out to do his business in the mornings and just not putting him on his run because it's too cold, and sometimes she'd forget to go check the door in the midst of trying to get my siblings off to school. So she started just waiting for him to do his business and calling him right back in, while waiting for him on the porch to keep an eye on him. Well, as he got better with this and because she hates the cold, she started just staying at the door. This eventually became she left him alone while she made her cup of coffee and then came back.

I guess he was doing pretty good for the past few weeks like this, until today when he ran off.

Mom let him out about 5:30am, and I just now retrieved him. Four hours of calling his name and standing at the door freezing our asses off every half hour or so.

Now, I haven't slept all night. I napped a lot off and on through the day, and I've been up since 10pm. It's almost 10am. I'm coming down with the flu, and my stomach is off because of the screwy sleep schedule and lack of a proper diet.

But, because Mom is worse off with the flu than I am, and god only knows what my sister is doing (this is technically her dog after all), and because Dad was sleeping (up until about two minutes ago); I had to be the one to go find the dog. Mom was certain he'd become roadkill because she had saw a car slam their brakes on near the driveway just after seeing Jack near it when he wouldn't respond to our calls. And when mom starts worrying, it's easier just to take action than to try and calm her with words.

So I walked up the driveway to see if I'd find puppy splatter or not, and thankfully I didn't. Mind you, it's about 20ºF outside, and I only have a hoodie and some haphazardly thrown-on clothes. It was really cold, even in the sunlight. I went a little ways down the road in either direction in the immediate area I knew he usually frequented because there were other dogs there, and then came back through the woods where I knew he also tended to go.

I did this for two purposes. The first being that I could call his name while walking. The second is that it's easier to spot a dog when you're not in a fast moving vehicle, trying to pay attention to the road. And the third and most important reason was that I wanted to leave a familiar scent behind so that maybe he'd follow it home. I'm no city girl, I live in a small town with lots of trees. I played in the woods as a child the way other kids went to the town park. But let me tell you, climbing up and over snow banks and finding areas that I wasn't going to sink in to knee-deep snow was not what I wanted to do this morning.

Jack did not appear before me while walking though, so I came back inside and got my keys. I planned on going around the "block" if you will, even though it would be more like making a circle of roads that happen to connect.

Wouldn't you know as I got to the end of the driveway the little shit was sitting right there on the side of the road maybe three-hundred feet away? Well, he disappeared just as fast when I turned to look so I could see if any cars were coming before I went to pick him up. Why take the car? It's simple, I didn't feel like back down an icy driveway of good length, especially when it slopes downward.

So I went and turned around on the street just up ahead, and as I came back he was there at the end of the driveway. Well, I hauled his ass in the car and kept a hand on his collar the whole way inside.

That dog is smart. We didn't have to say anything to him and he knew he was in trouble. He's currently cowering in the living room with his tail between his legs, because he knows that my Dad is going to chew him out. We all know it. He was told that he was bad by Mom and myself already, but Dad gives no quarter. He doesn't beat the animals, but the tone of his voice is enough when they're bad.

Damn dog deserves it right now. And I think Mom's learned her lesson--Jack will be going back on his run from now on. She should know better anyways. You know how curiosity killed the cat? Yeah, well it's going to kill our dog one day. I know he's a good boy, but his curiosity gets the better of him and he takes off. You'd think he'd know better by now. But apparently he doesn't, and he probably never will.

But at least he's back.