Jada, get back here so I can kill you

Hello Everyone,

This email was originally sent on December 27th, 2014.

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I missed Thursday's email on account of the holiday, so here's one about a recent adventure.

In any group for which one is responsible, whether dogs or kids or plants, there are always those you worry about, and those that require less supervision. For instance, when I was a kid, I was angelic to the point that my parents could shower my siblings with attention. Any success they have in life is really a result of my own good temperament, when you think about it. But I digress.

Dad and I came up to the cottage Christmas Day, mom and Katrina coming a day later. We had three dogs: my two hellions, and the energetic but relatively easy to handle Jada. She loves to wrestle with her amour, Arthur, for whom affections are most definitely not returned, and she can be loud on occasion, barking at you when she gets worked up, which is not rare. But, as opposed to Sophie and Arthur, she never runs away.

Until she does.

I have to keep Sophie tied up when at the cottage, because of her and Arthur’s propensity to run off into the bush. The image of a skinny little poodle with a big thick industrial-strength rope tied to her Italian leather collar is one I’ll have to capture. Anyway, she was the only one tied up when our neighbours came by with their equally energetic golden retriever named Henry. We chatted for a few moments, then they were off to hike through the bush on the far side of the lake.

Dad and I continued fiddling around in the garage, when about 10 minutes later, we noticed Jada wasn’t around. She didn’t come back when we called, so there were two options: she either took off with the neighbours and their dog, or she was down on the fragile ice at the lake.

We hustled off to the lake, where lo and behold there was a hole in the ice. Not only that, there was a figure of some kind in the hole, and as got we closer, the figure disappeared under the ice. Holy hell.

The spot was about 20 feet out from the dock and had sticks and bits of debris around the hole. We were seconds away from tying a rope off and heading out on the ice, but as we stared at the hole, we figured it wasn’t quite right. The ice wasn’t freshly broken and the sticks and such around the edge meant it was probably a beaver.

Of all the damned times to see a beaver! Really, really not in the mood for wildlife at the moment.

So, the only other option was to run off into the woods looking for her and/or the neighbours. I grabbed my cell phone, which naturally had a low enough battery to cause further anxiety, and took off. Dad stuck around the cottage, pacing up and down the lane in case she came back.

I went about half way around the lake, to what we call Horseshoe bay, calling her name and occasionally stopping and listening, but only saw some white tail deer. I heard them crashing through the bush before I saw them, giving me hopes that I had come across my missing dog. But no, just beautiful magnificent creatures that I really, really didn’t care to see right then.

Back at the ranch, Dad hadn’t seen anything. I got back after an hour or more and we conferred again whereupon I went off in the other direction. I was about 10 minutes gone when Dad called. Jada had come back, followed a few minutes later by the neighbours.

She had, after all, taken off to play with the other dog and hadn’t bothered to tell us. It’s likely that Arthur went down the road with her at first, but being the good dog that he is, he came back. To be with Sophie, true, but he still came back.

The neighbours noticed her when they were on the far side of the lake, but were too far away to let us know. They must have taken a slightly different route from me, as I neither saw nor heard any sign of them, despite being in the same general area. A good lesson about getting lost in the woods.

So, she’s back with us, safe and sound, and tired out from a day of fun and adventure. I’m tired too, though not nearly so pleased with myself.

wes

#Adventures #Jada