Dogs Don't Look Both Ways

You may think you have your dog trained – but when you’re not around, there’s no telling what your dog could do! When faced with smells that humans cannot smell, and instincts that humans do not have, your dog may do what comes naturally.  Let’s read Joey’s side of the story: Here my dog tells the story of how he got hit by the car and what he did after he was hit.

When Jane and Phil and I are outside our home, they have consistently told me to not run into the street, and have done so much to make sure that I do as they say. This has become a problem once or twice when Phil comes home from work and Jane opens the front door to let me run out to him and say “Hello” and I get so excited (and mindless, they would say) that I dart for the street in my abundant joy.  My staying within our property boundary is largely why they installed the fence around our property. In addition, when my parents and I go outside, they keep me on a leash so that I cannot run into the street on my own. Sometimes when we are walking together and we reach a street corner, Phil will say “Sit”, and we remain there until he says “Okay.”

But on this particular beautiful morning, when the sky was bright blue and the air smelled fresh and clean and the morning sunlight was upon me and I could smell the scent of neighboring dogs, all that was meaningless to me. I didn’t care about their warnings.  I wanted to enjoy running and being free and making friends with the other dogs in my neighborhood who were also outside. These are three of my favorite things, and that’s all I cared about. Besides, Dad hadn’t taken me running that morning and I had energy waiting, just screaming, to be released.  And nobody was looking at me, even better. So I set about my work. I started following the scents of other dogs.

I slowly walked up to the beautiful carriage path where some cars drive but many people jog, walk, bicycle, and walk their dogs.  Very good. I had seen some other dogs being walked by their owners along the carriage path and being friendly and I wanted to play with them.  Another person was there walking her dog and, seeing me off-leash and interacting with other dogs, decided to try to grab me by my collar and see where I lived and bring me home. That was when I decided to run in exactly the opposite direction from her. Exactly the opposite direction happened to be into the middle of a 4-lane street.

Here you see the main 4-lane road on the right and the carriage path on the left where people jog and dogs are walked. People also jog and dogs are also walked in the center green park that stretches for miles and miles. It was in this green island that I found the other dogs and into the street on the right where I ran and was hit.

And then, the next thing I knew, I was in a lot of pain and I let out a big cry.

Immediately, people who were walking their own dogs along the pedestrian path were trying to look at the name tag on my collar to find out where I lived and the telephone number to call. The person in the car started to cry.  The sanitation workers, who were driving by during their route, stopped to see how they could help.  One person on the pedestrian pathway got out her cell phone. I think she was trying to call Animal Control.

I know Animal Control very well; they are my friends. Every once in a while when I escape, Animal Control brings me back home. They’re really nice. Officer O’Connell is one of my favorites from Animal Control.

But on this day I didn’t stick around long enough to see my friend Officer O’Connell.