TheBanyanTree: Domino Dogs

[Tom Smith]

A whole series of quirky things went rapidly awry -one event
triggering another, like dominoes.  I went through the back
door of the house into the enclosed patio, our "dog house", to
help Barbara get a leash on one.  In a flash, Ginger, the
German shorthaired pointer, made a dash into that door opening,
minus leash, after a cat.  No problem, I thought, there's lots
of places the cats can hide, and the house would contain the
dog.  Ginger headed staight for the front door, just slighlty
ajar, and got out.  No problem, I thought, there's a fence and a
gate..  The gate, however, was open and in about the time it
takes to say "doggonit" I was looking at a gone dog, running
down the street.      

I grabbed a leash and followed, along with Barbara.  A couple
blocks away, I urged Barbara to just stay put with the leash
while I went back to secure the other dog, and open the back gate,
and return in the car.  I was just ready to return when I saw
Ginger, trailing a leash, running toward me.. followed by a pit
bull.  I grabbed the leash.  Big Mistake.  Ginger was not as
much running toward me and home as AWAY from the pit bull and
when I grabbed the leash the pit bull grabbed Ginger.  By the
neck.  I grabbed two fistfulls of Pit Bull back-of-neck hide
and let go the leash.  That combination enabled Ginger to
escape into our back yard, and I was able to maintain my grip
on the Pit Bull to keep him from following.  Somehow I managed
to close all the gates and the Pit Bull eventually wandered
off.  

We called Animal Control and a week later never saw the Pit
Bull, a neighbor's dog, again.  Sad.  Sobering.  The future
till forever changed by a moment's attention in the wrong
direction.