Hounding

It was 10 a.m. and the smell of pancakes still hung in the air.

Sunday mornings spent leisurely over breakfast with your family just feel categorically and cosmically "right". For those brief few hours no one else seems to exist and nothing else demands your time. The "clink-clink" of forks on plates and the sound of your children's laughter fills the room.

The sun shone outside and brought soft light into the house. We sat there with the boys while they ate their food with their fingers and happily babbled in their baby-speak. Taking our time with everything, it is in these moments that all feels right with the universe.

Pure happiness can and does happen. Sometimes it comes courtesy of pancakes and a weekend morning. I suppose there really is something to simplicity.

I'm not kidding, I felt like I had touched enlightenment last Sunday. The feeling stayed with me throughout the day and I moved through those hours as if I was in on a big secret. We went for a walk, ran some errands, and everything seemed like a gift.

We had also previously agreed to dog-sit that night for this person from church. She had to leave unexpectedly for a funeral and called us up earlier in the week to see if we could help her out. It was no problem. A single night of dog-sitting isn't a big deal.

I drove to her house to pick the dog up in the afternoon. The morning's contentment still moved through me. When I got to the house, I found the dog in the backyard where the owner said she would be. An older dog, medium sized, and seemed very sweet. She shook a little in the legs as older dogs tend to do.

I had to pick her up to put her in the back of the car and drove back home.

This would be fun I thought. A temporary pal for our dog and I knew the boys would be entranced with another animal in the house. I called Heather just before I got home to get everything ready for this new visitor.

Pulling into the garage, I remembered that I had to pick her up to get her into the car, so as I opened up the back hatch I was expecting to have to lift her out once again. What I wasn't expecting was for her to bolt out of the car like someone had just shot her in the ass.

Which is exactly what she did.

She trotted away from the house and I figured she would just check the surroundings out and come right back. That didn't happen. I found myself having to chase after her at a panic-inducing increasing pace. She then began running down the street, and that's when I found myself getting downright frantic.

It was one of those moments that you suddenely find yourself in where things have gone terribly wrong very quickly and you are left thinking "This can't be happening", and yet it was. I was now sprinting down our street and watched her disappear around a far corner. Did I mention I was sprinting? Did I mention I was sprinting in flip-flops?

I finally had to kick the damn flip-flops off my feet as I was now in full marathon mode. The dog got further and further away. I can't remember the last time I ran so fast. For extra panic bonus points she would sometimes run right out into the middle of the road as well. At this point I figured she would either get hit by a car, or disappear completely.

I had no way to contact the woman who owned her, and as I ran like Apollo I played out various scenarios in my head of how I would explain how I lost/killed this dog to the owner when she got back from a funeral. These thoughts put some extra gas in my tank I assure you.

A frantic phone call was made to Heather who promptly put the boys into their playroom and jumped into the car. At this point we were basically abandoning our kids for some dog we didn't even know.

Oh yeah, I was also shouting the dog's name at the extreme top of my voice while running. I can only imagine what that looked like to someone as I sped past their house. A 36 year old man running like his ass was on fire while screaming the most petite of names.

Chloe!!!! Chlllloooooeeee!!! Chloooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Heather finally shows up. I was completely out of juice, so she jumps out and runs after the dog, and I jump into the car and speed crazily after this dog. Salvation finally came when she ran near a group of kids who Heather yelled at to: "STOP THAT DOG". Thank god for kids man. They love anything like a mission. The 4 adults I passed during this whole insane time merely looked up lazily as they watered their lawn or simply just stared. Adults can be so useless sometimes.

Well, finally we kind of corral this frickin' dog between Heather, me and the group of kids. But she somehow bolts again through us, so I jump back in the car and make a full-on bootleg U-turn. The tires squealed. The kids, in unison, shouted: "Cooooool!!!". It truly was insane. We all caught up with the dog again and this time were able to get our hands on her. I wanted to rip that dog's head off man, but instead gently placed her back in the car.

It wasn't the dog's fault, she was just scared and didn't know what was going on. Some random guy plucks her from homely familiarity, drives her away, and then expects her not to react. Nope, the fault was all mine. In the end she ended up being a very sweet dog, our kids did love her, and it was nice to have two dogs in the house. I, however, had to sit very still for an hour afterwards to catch my breath. I got a whopping blister on my foot and my ankle has felt weird for days since.

The worst part was sheepishly walking back to retrieve my previously abandoned sandals. They sat forlorn on the sidewalk just where I had kicked them off only 10 minutes ago.

But that's life isn't it? At one moment all is right with the universe, and at the next moment you're running your ass off to catch a dog you don't even know.