My kids never love the dog as much as when he’s lost, it’s the classic “romanticize the past,” even if the past was just yesterday.
Most days Milo (almost 100 lb Great Pyrenees/retriever mix) is too hairy, too big, and too needy. The kids argue over who is going to feed him, or let him back in to the house after he’s gone outside (honestly, they will watch him at the back door barking and looking at them like ‘seriously, am I not cute enough, don't you love me??”) They yell at him for following them around, or trying to lick them, he's like the annoying younger brother, always in their grill and all they want to do is brush him off.
Sure Romeo gives him love (see pic), but I’d say Milo gets maybe 18% love, and 82% verbal abuse from the kids (some of it in the form of general emotional neglect).
Milo’s fatal flaw (really his only flaw other than being incredibly hairy) is that he is a sneak attack runner. He is 99% lazy, but he’s like a camel, he stockpiles his energy for short bursts and the bursts always happen when he’s seemingly lazing out on the couch, but then the door gets left open for a second and then it’s like a switch is flipped and he goes from overweight couch potato dog, to cougar, in 4 seconds flat. So what I’m saying is that we are no stranger to having to go and track Milo down, usually it’s in our car, and we lure him back into the car by throwing treats at him while he’s running like his tail is on fire. The only thing that will get him to slow down is food. Last time he went to the vet they informed me he was “a bit chunky and should go on a diet today, as in ASAP”…might be due to his great escapes.
So that’s our dog. On with the story. Yesterday, at lunch time, I took him for a short run….not for him because honestly he looked like he couldn’t be bothered (sleeping feet up in the air on the couch), but for my own stress relieving purposes. Ironic since the next 24 hours would prove to increase my stress to max levels. Big mistake going on a run, BIG. This was one of those situations where I can honestly say being physically inactive would have far benefited me.
Milo pulled a classic “dog running-dog sees squirrel-dog goes crazy” scenario. My problem is that I didn’t have firm grasp on the leash and it slipped from my hand and he was gone. Even if I was puma runner status (which I'm not) I couldn’t have caught up with him. That didn’t stop me from trying, weaving in and out of private property trying to find him and screaming his name as if he'd actually come when I called. I looked ridiculous. The big problem, we were dangerously close to a "pet cemetery" type highway/road, and Milo is not good with cars. He's also not smart enough to wander home on his own.
I told the kids after school that he ran away and they were devastated. Is this the same dog that you refused to feed yesterday? The same dog that you refused to throw a ball with? Lucia said that she was scared and couldn’t go to sleep without Milo there. Gia said the “house felt weird” without him. I asked Romeo if he would forgive me if we didn’t find Milo. He looked at me and said “I u-give you if we find him, I not u-give you if we don’t”. When he saw the sad look on my face he instantly back tracked and said, “no, no…I u-give you”. Thank god I have one sweet boy that wants to make me happy. Lucia just wanted to know why I didn’t hold the leash tighter (coupled with that look that tweeners give that says "you're an idiot and I'm on to you.")
So he was MIA for 24 full hours, until just about an hour ago, when a kindly neighbor down the road called me and said “do you have a big yellow dog?” AH, yes indeedy, he’s big…and yellow, and thankfully alive. OK, crisis over, now the kids can get back to being annoyed by Milo. There will be a 5 minute lovefest when they see him, and then Ava will yell at him for getting fur all over her running pants. They will be devastated all over again on his next great escape (and let's face it, that could happen any time).
Signed, ME {lv}
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