The Great Escape

Saturday mornings I get a break from walking Brutus in the morning. Don's an early riser, so he and Brutus usually head out to enjoy the peace and quiet at the lake, so last Saturday was no different. The big difference was, Don came home with Brutus, yelled in that he was going to a fishing contest for a while, and would come back and pick Brutus up later to take him out on the lake with him. So, I didn't take Brutus for an afternoon walk.

I actually probably made things worse by walking around all day saying things like "you get to go fishing with dad!!" or "daddy will be here pretty soon". I swear these dogs know English. His little butt would wiggle like crazy. Well, it got to be one o'clock, then two o'clock, then three o'clock and before we knew it, it was four o'clock. Brutus was obviously not going out on the lake to play with dad. I was a little angry. Keeping Brutus entertained in the house is a bit of a chore. He is a constant companion, and he also isn't completely trust worthy yet, so I have to make sure I know where he is at all times. If he were on the lake with Don, Sheri would have some FREEDOM!! Woot woot! Don't get me wrong, I love the big guy, but it has been very comparable to having a very young toddler in the house for the last four weeks. Training an adolescent dog is just as hard as training a puppy.

So, when Don finally did get home, Brutus was sitting out on the front step waiting for him. Don got a ball out and was playing fetch with him. Brutus loves to play fetch, and we had kind of talked about trying to play a little fetch with him off leash because we couldn't imagine that he wouldn't retrieve his toy. So of course, I made the suggestion. What happened next should have been predictable, but it was so amazing to watch unfold. Just let me say that dogs have the ability to make reasonable decisions.

Don had thrown the ball down the drive way for the third time, and Brutus brought it back to him. He set the toy down, looked at Don, looked down the hill at the lake, looked at the toy, looked at Don again and BOLTED. I have to say that I wasn't completely surprised, although I was a little surprised. I have never seen a dog run like that. He ran like he had never had the freedom to run before. Thankfully, Don had his boots on. He grabbed Brutus's favorite squeaky toy, and off he went. Obviously he wasn't going to catch him, but at least he could try to keep him in sight. I was watching from the back of the house. Brutus ran through our back yard, out onto the lake, back up through all of our neighbors yards in the circle, and through the woods across from us. That was when Don decided to get the four wheeler out. He took the four wheeler down to the dirt road that leads to our homes, and pretty soon Brutus was coming back through the woods with Don behind him coming toward the house. I opened the door, hoping that Brutus would run right in the front door, but he fooled both of us and ran right past the house again. This time he took a left and headed down to run through every neighbors yard on the other side of us. Don left on his four wheeler again and drove all the way down to the dead end road and found Brutus tooling around at our friends Gary and Pam's. At this point, Don had had it. He turned around and started heading home. Don looked over his shoulder, and Brutus was chasing him. Brutus followed him all the way home and right into the garage. He was so pleased with himself. It took everything Don had to not blow up at him. He sat down and tried to talk to him like a person. I was cracking up. Here's Brutus sitting in the garage by Don's four wheeler, and I hear Don saying "buddy, you just can't run away like that".

We had a couple friends over for dinner that night, and I can honestly say that Brutus was very calm (exhausted)!!!