Winston decided to do the "old weaveroo" (name that movie) on the busy street outside our house last night during rush hour. In other words he decided to go play in the traffic and Franklin almost became an only child. We still can't figure out what possessed him, but here's the whole story:
We were just getting set up to work on painting a new side of the house with the sprayer. We had gotten all the accoutrement outside and I decided to bring the dogs out with us since they had already spent the day trapped inside. I put their leashes on, took them outside, and hooked them to me so they wouldn't be able to get too far away and cause a nuisance barking at the pedestrians and neighborhood dogs. A few minutes later someone strolls by the front of our house with a small dog. I bend over to pick up the pups- a preventative move, to stop them from freaking out if the walker decides to turn towards us. Naturally I go to pick up Franklin first as he is the troublemaker. At this point the dogs are relatively calm, just a few low growls in their throats. But while I am bending down Winston, apparently*, sees something in the opposite direction and starts to take off running. His collar snaps and he finds himself in an all-out sprint across the yard and the street towards a very busy corner.
I screamed for David (I can't move that fast with Franklin). David leaped off the ladder after Winston. Winston made it all the way across the street before he realized his mistake with all giant cars whizzing by him, or heard me yelling for him and knew he was in trouble. Then he turns around and goes back through the street and proceeds to lay down in the middle of the road (laying down is what he does around the house when he knows he has been naughty and I am scolding him). At this point David is in the road and he has stopped traffic (how the traffic came to a stop changes depending on who you ask- but I bet it looked a lot scarier from the middle of the street than from my viewpoint on the sidewalk). He snatches up Winston, still cowering, and brings him safely back to me.
We got very very lucky last night. We don't know why or how the collar snapped, but we certainly won't be taking them out anymore without their harnesses on. And they probably won't get to go out with such "low" supervision now (although in my defense at that moment I don't think I could have been watching them any closer).
I hugged Winston extra tight last night. We don't know what we'd do without our old man around the house keeping his younger bro in line.
*Looking back, we still don't know what he was running after. There were no dogs, people, bicycles, etc in that direction. It honestly appeared as if he decided to chase a red jeep down the road. And to interject a slightly lighter note, I haven't seen Winston run that fast in a long time. He seemed to enjoy his 7 seconds of freedom, before of course the reality of traffic surrounded him.
