Great Escape

I lost my wife's dog today.  Only for about 5 minutes, but he was a lost dog, and I was a panicked husband.  "Oh, by the way sweetie, I can't find Coach!" is not what I wanted to say to my dear wife when she got back for the grocery store. 

When Joyce left to do some shopping she brought Coach outside where I was focused on doing some desperately needed yard work.  We don't trust him yet to roam the house alone, and she didn't want to lock the poor thing up in his box, so there we were, two guys doing yard work together.  Bonding time!  After we finished with the leaves, we turned our attention to the pond, scooping out leaves, cleaning the filter and Coach decided to hangout on the porch while I finished up.  When it came time to squirt down the filters I went up on the porch to turn the hose on and the dog was nowhere in sight.  PANIC!  As you know, we changed his name when we got him, so yelling Coach didn't accomplish anything, but I didn't think about that at the time.  Immediately I ran out front hoping not to find him in the street, but still nowhere in sight.  Back to the porch, I thought he might have found something to hide under and nap, which is what he does most of the time inside, but nothing.  That's when I heard leaves rustling in the neighbor's yard, and there he was.  He would have had to gone out front and down the sidewalk in order to get there. 
 

I've been working towards giving Coach more freedom by walking him in the yard off the leach, by letting him play outside without being on a lead, and now this.  He had no idea of the danger that he was in, the potential for getting lost and especially the risk of getting squished in the street.  Freedom is a precious gift which should never be abused, it doesn't also have a happy ending.

Chuck