Stubborn
Stubborn
Since I've spent the last three days stuffing my face with chocolate, and because the weather is gorgeous today, I decided to sneak away from my dimly lit cubicle in my stuffy office for an hour and go for a run. I rushed home, threw on my running clothes, and ran out the door toward central park. As I turned the first corner of my neighborhood, Modest Mouse stopped singing 3rd Planet and Natalie Imbruglia began singing Torn. Brent was calling. So I kept up a slight jog while he explained why he suddenly feels that I should pay him more alimony than we agreed upon. Whatever. When all of the sudden a playful little beagle pounces up to me and starts running with me!!! I giggled and pounced up to her to pet her, but she wagged her little tail and pounced away. Brent was confused. I glanced up and smiled at a little grey-haired lady standing at her front door as she asked me if the dog was mine ... Now I was confused. As the three of us stood in silence staring at each other (Brent staring figuratively of course) a car drove by and the doggie ran right toward it! That broke the silence. I yelled and chased the little stinker as another car came around the corner and slammed on it's breaks to avoid the nieve puppy. The lady yelled to inform me that the dog keeps doing that, and Brent finally asked me what the heck was wrong. I responded in my cutest puppy voice, "Come here wittle girl. Do you have a doggie tag? Where are your mommy and daddy? Huh? Come here." The dog thought this was a very fun game and ran back out into the street. I finally explained to Brent that I'd found a stray and that I'd call him back. Then I ushered the dog into the park where at least shed be safe from cars!
She was very happy to have my company but was not about to let me close enough to touch her. If I walked away she would follow me, but if I walked toward her she would run. Then I remembered that she liked running along side me, so I tried that and she looooooved it! It was so cute! Everyone was smiling at me as if she was my new little puppy, which I was really starting to wish she was. As when we were running happily together side by side I reached down and got her collar! Ha! She was pretty pissed. She whimppered a little and tried to get away while I twisted the collar in vain. No tags. . Just then MGMT began singing Electric Feel in my ear. It was my mom calling. I was like, "Hi mom. I'm sitting here holding the most adorable stray dog in the universe and I have no idea what to do with her. Any suggestions?" My mom, being the animal-lover that she is, was like, "Yes. You should call the Huntington Beach Animal Rescue and I happen to have their number right here. Ready?" Yay!
So I called them and after a brief debate about why I couldn't give them a home address, they said someone would be right there. So I stayed crouched down holding my new little friend's collar and she tried desperately to pull away from me. After a few minutes that felt like hours, my legs started quivering and she started choking. This was not working. I looked around for a rope, which I did not find, but I DID find a lady riding by with a doggie in the basket of her bike. She happened to have an extra leash and a very helpful son who put it on the beagle for me. Double yay! They left and told me to leave the leash under the tree for them and they'd pick it up later.
The doggie took me for a walk around the park. She sniffed other dogs, chased birds, and ate lots of grass while I stumbled behind her yelling "no" "stop" "this way". She is not a good listener. I saw a friendly looking man laugh at me as I lost my game of tug-of-war and ended up in some bushes. She later led me over to him on one of her grass eating escapades and he asked me if I'd gotten a new puppy and if I'd ever seen Cesar Milan. I really must have looked pathetic. Before I could explain he crouched down, grabbed the dog by her neck, and had her calmly laying at his feet while he pet her. I was about to lay at his feet in submission too but he stopped me to teach me a few tricks: 1) shorten the leash (this one little trick makes a huge difference!!!) and 2) grab the fur at the top of her neck and tell her to sit (she actuly obeys when you do this!) He said we should name her stubborn and I concurred. Then she threw up a big white glob and ate it back up. On that note, I thanked him and he left.
My time with Stubborn was much more pleasant after that. No more pulling me around the park. We went for a few more runs, sat on the bench for a while, and then the truck arrived. It was so sad! She totally whimpered at me when he put her in the cage. I walked away with a website and a doggie ID number, and a little tear in my eye.
Less than a week ago I killed a spider and thought to myself, wow, at this rate of conquoring fears I'll be rescuing dogs in no time! Crazy.
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