Sweet Yet Sour

This will all be funny later

Monday, May 18th, 2009 | The Daily Special

Later, much later, I will be able to laugh about what happened to us yesterday.  For right now, it was just a little scary…

Our poor beloved Cash has always been easily spooked.  Since he had a pretty sheltered life when he raced on the track, when we first got him he was spooked by things like our electric toothbrushes, leaves on trees, stop signs, glass doors, etc.  Anything new and especially something moving scared the crap out of him.  He’s gotten much better in the past two years but yesterday proved that he’s still capable of a major scare.

Mike was out of town most of this week and since I’ve been a single mom, I’ve been trying to combine the dog walk and a visit to the park.  I have been walking Cash with Anna in the stroller and then have been tying Cash to the stroller and leaving him in a shady spot while Anna and I play in the park.  This has worked really well all week; Cash sat calmly in the shade and ate a little grass while Anna and I played nearby.

Yesterday Mike and I did the same thing, we walked to a nearby park, left Cash tied up to the stroller in some shade and then we played with Anna in the grass.  Cash sat quietly for a while but then stood up, pulled a little too hard on his leash and pulled the stroller over.  And that’s when he freaked out.

Mike, who was walking with Anna with me behind him, watched as Cash took off trying to get away from the stroller.  Cash ran full bore (that’s almost 40 mph) with the stroller dragging behind him down the park path.  Mike let go of Anna (she fell gracefully into the grass) and took off after Cash.  I grabbed Anna, the things that had fallen out of the stroller and took off after them.

The park path that Cash was running down meanders in between the houses in our neighborhood.  It runs for a few miles and connects several parks.  It was a nice afternoon so plenty of people who have houses that face the greenbelt were out on their decks or in their backyards.  All of them got to see our Greyhound running down the path while dragging the stroller.

Apparently, although Mike and I were not there to see it, Cash ran down the path and turned and headed toward the park that is closest to our house. When he got close to the play equipment (where there were several children playing), the leash and the stroller got wrapped around a sign in the park.  I’m pretty sure this gave him whiplash and it definitely almost took the sign completely out of the ground.

This was where Mike found him, trying desperately to get away from the stroller and still attached to the leash wrapped around the sign.

Cash is relatively uninjured thankfully.  He has some minor cuts on his hind legs and is going to see the vet tomorrow – (of course I couldn’t get an appointment today!).  Otherwise, he seems a little slower and a little sore.  I gave him some cheese today and that did seem to make him happy.

The stroller, which I forgot to take pictures of before it was taken away with the trash this morning, is a total loss.  We’ll get a new stroller and I’m almost positive it will take a little while before Cash is willing to walk next to a stroller – but we’ll see.  He could totally prove me wrong since the new stroller will look and smell different.  I will never again tie him to anything other than a tree or really large post.  And don’t let me get started on what would have happened if Anna had been in the stroller…

My father put it all in perspective when I called to tell him the story.  After laughing and intermittently saying, “poor Cash”, he told me that as long as everyone was alright it was all good and that I would find the story funny later.  He’s right, I will – the thought of Cash dragging that stroller down the path scared me yesterday and even today, but in a few years when we’re all healed I know it will be funny.  In the meantime, after we put Anna to bed last night, Mike had a beer and I had a gin and tonic while we breathed a sigh of relief and said thanks that no one was badly injured.

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