We had about 2.75 inches of rain from late yesterday (Monday) through midafternoon today. It was raining steadily when I took the dogs for their morning walk. I dressed them both in their raincoats. Lucy, as usual, treated it as torture and didn’t relieve herself. Zeke usually does OK in his raincoat, but this morning he absolutely refused to go. I thought Lucy might relieve herself if I took her raincoat off and released her, but she just hightailed it back to the front door. I took Zeke’s raincoat off and let him off the leash, hoping for a better result. (Leah scolded me for letting him off the leash, but I thought he had enough sense to come in from the rain. Silly me.) I expected him to do his business and come back. Instead, he went for a three-and-a-half hour romp around the mountain in the cold rain.
I thought he might figure out that it was drier and warmer inside, so after a short romp he would come back. But no. After a while I went outside and called him. Later I drove up and down the mountain, but no Zeke. Leah always asks me whether I call him, but I usually don’t do that. The only reason I called him earlier was to remind him where home was. When he’s been on one of his romps, if I see him and call him, he has never come. He usually looks at me, then turns around and runs the other way.
He’s done his disappearing act before, but this time I wasn’t sure he was going to come back. After lunch I was backing out of the driveway to look for him again when a big SUV pulled in beside me. The woman in the passenger seat rolled her window down and asked if I was looking for a dog. They had found him trotting down Fouche Gap Road and loaded him up in their back seat. He was soaked, and so was their back seat. I was apologetic; they were understanding.
Here’s Zeke waiting for a towel.
Zeke. Not repentant.
He looks chastened, but he wasn’t. For Zeke, it’s all in a day’s work. But he was tired.
Zeke is such a pretty bad boy. I wonder why he would get into a car with strangers. Maybe he thought it was the nice taxi you had sent to have him picked up. I’m sure he was utterly grateful.
Lucky you for getting so much rain. We’re still on target here for the driest year on record. Sure hope we get some precipitation in December or we’re in big trouble.
Well, he is a dog and he can’t be held to mere human standards after all. I know I’d be terrified if my dog, Flike, had taken off and was gone for three hours. I’m glad you had a happy ending.
Robin — It’s funny you should mention his getting into a car with strangers. When he first showed up at our house, we kept him for a while and took him to the vet, all the time intending to find a new home for him. We could never get him to willingly enter a car, but when the people who adopted him showed up, he jumped right in as soon as they opened the door for him. That sort of annoyed us. Of course he still ended up with us. When we got back from a two-week vacation after adopting him out, we had a call from someone who had found him roaming and traced us through his rabies tag. At that point we just had to accept that he was our dog.
Pablo — He certainly behaves according to his own doggy standards, but he sometimes takes his dogginess to extremes. It was barely above freezing, so the rain was just about as cold as it could be without turning into snow. I couldn’t believe he wanted to run around in it. I have considered getting one of those dog-collar GPS units and a GoPro camera to see where he goes when he roams. I’m a little afraid of what I might find out.