ChrisCam

Driving home after dinner on Saturday night with Mark, I took the long way by the water. We're driving with the lights from the shore reflected in the water, a few quiet swans drifting out there, and all of a sudden AAAAAAAAAAH slam on brakes and pull over. Galloping down the middle of the road are two dogs, a white and a black lab. The car behind me swings into the other lane, narrowly avoiding crashing into the black one, and keeps going. Mark and I leap out of the car and call the dogs. They are tail-waggingly friendly, soaking wet from an apparent dip in the Sound, and obviously having fun on this exceedingly dangerous joyride. When I call at them in sweetest puppy voice, "Whitey" came running over, wagging her dripping wet tail. I grabbed her collar and handed her to Mark. While we were talking to her sister, the black dog kept running and took off down the road. She swerved into the street, running on one side until a car speeding around the corner almost clipped her and she switched to the woods side, where a car zooming up from behind almost got her. I don't love dogs quiite enough to run down the middle of the street myself on a Saturday night when it's dark and people have been drinking, so I was sprinting down the shoulder waving my arms and screaming at people to slow down while calling her. I saw behind me that another car had stopped to help Mark with the big white dog who was jumping around excitedly (and wetly!). I cooed to the dog and she stopped running, standing warily in the middle of the road ready to bolt. I stood still and talked to her, frantically waving cars around her. Suddenly, we both heard the unmistakable sound of a ball bouncing. Another guy had seen what was happening ahead and pulled over, jumping out of his car with the lacrosse ball. The black dog crept to the side to investigate the ball while he and I tried to move her away from the road. An oncoming car's warning honk made her jump and run back into the street, right in front of it barreling down on her. Three cars almost had an accident as they swerved around her crazily and she dashed from side to side and the man and I screamed frantically at the cars to slow down and at her to come. One of those cars pulled over, and a woman in scrubs jumped out with her dinner in one hand and a leash in the other. With chicken nuggets, we again lured the pup to the side of the road and the three of us hemmed her in away from traffic, pushing farther into the rushes and tall grass, but we were afraid to try too hard to grab her lest she spook. Suddenly I heard Mark's voice yelling, "Are you ok? The owner's here!" and a panicked Mommy voice yelled out, "Liberty! Libby, baby, come here!" and the dog took off and went right to her. Mark had read the number off the white dog's tags and called their home, while the other guy who'd stopped with him owned multiple dogs and had quickly calmed white pup down so Mark could call.

It would have been a really crappy story if either dog had ended up getting hurt, but they both turned out just fine, and Mark and I were pretty happy with ourselves for the rest of the night! Their Mommy was beside herself that so many people had stopped to help, the dog-lovers all stood around and grinned at each other saying "Thanks for stopping!", and we all tromped back to our cars.