Thursday, May 29, 2008

Life Can Change In A Heartbeat

My dogs will be the death of me. When we got back from Denver on Tuesday Duke did something unexpected even for him. My husband had both the front door of the house and the front gate open to make it easier to move things from the truck to the house. Duke and Kate were in the yard while my husband was unloading the truck when suddenly both of them raced toward the open gate. My husband saw them and yelled. Kate stopped on the sidewalk but Duke kept going into the street.

Now, at the same time this was happening our next door neighbor was being dropped off by a coworker. The coworker was driving a big company truck with wheels so large the top of the tires would have hit me right were the ball of my femur sets in my pelvis. By the time Duke made it to the street the truck was moving again and they met right in front of our house. I heard a loud thump and feared Duke had gone under the back tire. He had not but seemed to bounce off the wheel and spin around. The next instant he was racing back into the yard, seeming unhurt. The driver stopped and my husband assured him that what had happened wasn't his fault.

What we assume happened is that both dogs saw one of the neighborhood cats crossing the street and started to run after him. Kate (being the smart one) stopped her pursuit once she realized she could not catch him. Duke (being the not as smart one) kept going. And being Duke he was so focused on the cat he did not see the truck until he was on top of it. He did try to swerve at the last second but was going so fast he hit the back bumper.

Duke's is unhurt, my blood pressure is back to normal, and my husband has learned to put the dogs in the basement whenever he has both the front door and the front gate open at the same time.

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