Spooked Part 3: Does the Dog Walk You?

Part 1 http://www.archivesandfiles.com/2017/11/give-or-take-squirrel-or-five.html
Part 2 http://www.archivesandfiles.com/2017/11/bless-my-heart.html

Mia runs up a hill and looks back down at me.  I don’t even know what to say. Part of me says keep walking, she’ll follow, another suddenly vocal part of me wants to deny ever knowing her, and then my grown-up voice tells me to get my dog.  

So I do the right thing.  I go. 

She thinks it’s a game. 

Or whatever. I don’t even care what she’s thinking, she knows she’s not doing the right thing, and she’s loving every bit of it, racing between houses triggering lights to flash on. 

 I pray no one comes out with a shotgun. 

Mia stops to smell a mailbox instead of running into a dark street in front of a car. 

Thank You God.  

I call to her again and she races again forward, now trotting along the unlit street.

A car comes up behind us and I try to wave at it so that it doesn’t hit my dog. 

It goes around.  

The dog kept walking off on her adventure away from me. 

Another car goes around us, then another, and I’m starting to wonder how this whole thing will end when a cheerleader arrives to save the day.

OK, actually, it was Halloween so I don’t know if she was a cheerleader or not, but she was dressed like one, and she stopped her car and asked if she could help and I said YES!!

Can I pretend to get in your car? I think my dog will get jealous and try to get in the car too….

We think this is funny.

Mia sees me talking and starts walking towards the car.

The occupants look impressed. 

I say something or the other about outsmarting your opponents, and we keep talking as Mia pushes herself against me to get into  the cheerleader’s car.  

I hook her harness back on her, thank the cheerleader and go back into the dark night.

The next day I relate this story to students and one student asked if I punished the dog. 

Heads nod, and another student asks “do you walk the dog or does the dog walk you?”

I let them settle and then I own everything that went wrong.

 I was wrong to push her to go somewhere she look scared to go. 

 That was mean, and it isn’t who I want to be; no creature should show that they are scared and then be pushed, right?  

(Heads nodded)

 Mia showed me not to push her,  and I will never do that again. 

Lesson learned.