I previously mentioned that I am an animal lover. I had a black lab/border collie mix named Rosco that I got when I lived in Oregon. Rosco was a lover of water and of running, mostly away from me when I let him out the door. I cannot remember a day I would open the door let him out onto my deck and just start running after him. He was a wonderful dog very good with people and other dogs but in his heart of hearts he wanted to be back in Oregon swimming in the rivers, living in the woods and definitely not be locked up inside a house all day long. I had Rosco for 13 years when eventually his love of running made him meet his demise. He was struck by a car one day after taking off on me as I let him out and to think of him this day still brings tears to my eyes. I suppose I still live with the guilt every day.
Eventually I decided I wanted to get another dog. My husband and I were at a home and garden show in San Antonio and there were a bunch of dogs that were going to be put down if they were not adopted soon and wouldn't you know we ended up leaving with 2 year old Beaumont a black lab mix. It didn't take us long to realize that Beaumont was what you would call a "runner" too as he escaped a few times from our fenced in back yard and once from the back of our vehicle at the park. As I'm pushing my daughter on one of the swings I turn to see my husband walking across a field in the direction the dog had just run. The next thing you know we see about 5 deer running at top speed on the side of the road and guess who's chasing them? And keeping up with them I might add....I wonder if he has greyhound in him because I have never seen a dog run as fast as he does. Luckily I have also discovered that Beaumont responds to you if you whistle for him. I tried this one day because Rosco used to respond (eventually) to my whistling for him also. What I was not prepared for was the locomotive type speed that he responds to whistling with and the lack of control when preparing to stop or should I say run into and jump on top of whatever is in front of him.
Anyways, Beaumont is now part of our family, I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to be outside with him playing ball in the backyard. Hopefully his locomotive ways will have settled down a bit by that time.
Erin,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I'm sorry for your lost of your first lab. The only dog that I had was a rottweiler/german shepherd mix. His name was King and he was also "deer" like. He would jump our neighbors fence which was about 4 ft. high. He also used to open the side door to go outside. He was a smart pup and he was originally for me so I wouldn't be scared to go into the basement of my parents house. I was only 4 or 5 at the time. It wasn't to a few years later where he was so called "put on a farm up north" which I found out the real meaning in much later years. I found that my mother wasn't comfortable with him being in the house because he was a large dog. He was a big dope if anything as my father still puts it. I found that he was put down because all the people who wanted him, wanted him for dog fights and for drug dealers supposively. I'm not sure if one or the other out weighs each other. Any ways, thank you for sharing. I hope your newer pup is a great one!