I have a little feel-good, fun story for you this week. Twice a week I get up at 4:30am to run with a couple friends in the wee hours of the morning. It’s peaceful and the traffic usually isn’t bad – only a handful of times have we run into any “excitement” on our runs. It’s mostly just us, solving the world’s problems while getting our exercise.
Thursday, we had one of those exciting mornings. We had just started running – literally just started, we hadn’t even made it a full block yet – and we saw this BIG St. Bernard standing in the middle of the street. My first thought was we needed to get this big boy out of the road, but my immediate second thought was: this dog better be friendly. We took our chances and called him to us from the sidewalk. Luckily, he listened and was out of harm’s way. Even luckier – he was the biggest teddy bear you could possibly imagine.
He had a broken chain around his neck, and it was pretty obvious he had escaped from his home. So, we sat with him on the sidewalk and called the police to see if they could come pick him up. When the officer arrived, he said he was pretty sure he knew where the dog lived. He himself didn’t live far from there, and he’d seen him being walked all the time. He said he was going to take him for a little walk and take him home.
We chuckled a bit at the thought of him knocking on doors at 5:30 in the morning, but we were glad the big puppy was going to find his way home. We continued on our run like we would any other morning.
When we had finished our loop, the police officer’s vehicle was still where he had left it, but he was now joined by Animal Control. The two officers were trying to convince the dog to get into the truck, but he wasn’t having it. We asked if he had found the owners, and he said he’d found the right house, but turns out it was a different St. Bernard. Who knew Watertown had so many big friendly beasts!
We tried helping the officers coax him into the vehicle, but he wanted nothing to do with it. He had a little taste of freedom, and wasn’t about to go to puppy jail!
Finally, my friend Jill asked how far the humane society was from there – only about a mile. We said, screw it! We’ll walk him there ourselves as long as one of the officers met us there to let him in. So, that’s what we did! We started walking with him at first, but then convinced him into a jog – he ended up being a great running partner!
The one police officer would drive ahead a bit, wait for us to catch up, and then drive a little further. We kept that up until we were only about a block from the humane society where he hopped out of his vehicle and told us he had found the owner! He remembered picking up a St. Bernard back in October and wondered if this was the same one. Turns out it was, his name is Boomer, and is apparently quite the escape artist! He found the owner’s number and said he was on his way to come get him.
It definitely made for a fun morning! We were so glad Boomer had a happy ending and found his way home, and I’m glad we were able to play a small part in that. Heaven forbid if my dog were ever to escape our yard, I would hope someone would do the same for him. We have to look out for each other!
Here’s to hoping Boomer had a well-earned nap at home and doesn’t make any more escape attempts. AND if you feel like joining run club, all dogs are welcome to jog along. 🙂
Until next time! 🙂
Megan Nelson