Another Gray Hair Story
I suppose I should look at this as Shmoo's effort to help our local hairdresser make extra money by coloring my gray hair more often!
On Sunday evening we were taking our usual after dinner promenade with the horde. Both beasts were enjoying life, playing, sniffing and doing what dogs like to do. But, all good things must end, so we told them that it was time to go home.
We turned back on the path and were heading home when Shmoo clearly saw something of interest on the bank leading down to the river. Now, most of the time when he goes down into the river, he runs down, splashes around and runs back up the way he went.
Unfortunately, this was at a point on the path that was much steeper than where he usually heads down. Also, the vegetation was very dense with some type of viney plants that made it impossible for him to find his way back up the hill.
There was no danger of him drowning, as the river is very low at the moment, with most of the water being diverted to Lac Montbel. But being unable to reach us, he started to panic.
That was where the gray hairs started sprouting right and left. I called and whistled, but it was also impossible for me to go down to the river so that he could see me. JM found a place where he could get down, although frankly I had pictures of that ending in disaster as well.
The problem was that Shmoo was so panicked that he either didn't hear JM or couldn't figure out what he wanted. Instead of running back towards us he first crossed to the other side and ran up there (not helpful) then ran back down to the river and splashed back and forth several times. By then, all of us, including Maggie, were starting to get worried. Then, Shmoo did something that only made it worse. He started running through the river in the wrong direction! Then, he disappeared.
By then, we had absolutely no idea where we should be looking for him. I kept hoping he would make his way home, but JM wasn't convinced and pictured him running all the way to the next village. I felt that even if that should happen, at least he now is microchipped and has a bright orange color with a large name plate that has our phone number and information on it. But we were still worried.
We decided to head towards a place on the river where we thought he would be able to climb out and see if we could head him off. As we went, we told various neighbors to keep their eyes open for him and catch him if he showed up.
As we started to head out of the garden, we heard a shout coming from M. Martinez who had passed us and had his eyes open for Shmoo. "He's coming!!!" he said. Sure enough, faster than a speeding bullet, a soaking wet, panicked but overjoyed to see us Shmoo was heading towards us.
The down side of this was clearly the "adventure dog" spirit taking over Shmoo and making him do stupid stuff. The up side was that he obviously has no desire to run away from us and realized that he needed to do what he could to find us again.
I definitely need to try to overcome the "adventure dog" a bit more if we're all going to survive until he gets old enough to calm down!
Ciao for now.
Randy
On Sunday evening we were taking our usual after dinner promenade with the horde. Both beasts were enjoying life, playing, sniffing and doing what dogs like to do. But, all good things must end, so we told them that it was time to go home.
We turned back on the path and were heading home when Shmoo clearly saw something of interest on the bank leading down to the river. Now, most of the time when he goes down into the river, he runs down, splashes around and runs back up the way he went.
Unfortunately, this was at a point on the path that was much steeper than where he usually heads down. Also, the vegetation was very dense with some type of viney plants that made it impossible for him to find his way back up the hill.
There was no danger of him drowning, as the river is very low at the moment, with most of the water being diverted to Lac Montbel. But being unable to reach us, he started to panic.
That was where the gray hairs started sprouting right and left. I called and whistled, but it was also impossible for me to go down to the river so that he could see me. JM found a place where he could get down, although frankly I had pictures of that ending in disaster as well.
The problem was that Shmoo was so panicked that he either didn't hear JM or couldn't figure out what he wanted. Instead of running back towards us he first crossed to the other side and ran up there (not helpful) then ran back down to the river and splashed back and forth several times. By then, all of us, including Maggie, were starting to get worried. Then, Shmoo did something that only made it worse. He started running through the river in the wrong direction! Then, he disappeared.
By then, we had absolutely no idea where we should be looking for him. I kept hoping he would make his way home, but JM wasn't convinced and pictured him running all the way to the next village. I felt that even if that should happen, at least he now is microchipped and has a bright orange color with a large name plate that has our phone number and information on it. But we were still worried.
We decided to head towards a place on the river where we thought he would be able to climb out and see if we could head him off. As we went, we told various neighbors to keep their eyes open for him and catch him if he showed up.
As we started to head out of the garden, we heard a shout coming from M. Martinez who had passed us and had his eyes open for Shmoo. "He's coming!!!" he said. Sure enough, faster than a speeding bullet, a soaking wet, panicked but overjoyed to see us Shmoo was heading towards us.
The down side of this was clearly the "adventure dog" spirit taking over Shmoo and making him do stupid stuff. The up side was that he obviously has no desire to run away from us and realized that he needed to do what he could to find us again.
I definitely need to try to overcome the "adventure dog" a bit more if we're all going to survive until he gets old enough to calm down!
Ciao for now.
Randy
