Last night I was outside fiddling around with the wireless sensor for my temperature clock and I had the door open a little bit for whatever reason. Next thing I know I see a black streak jump through the opening and take off. Shit! The dog escaped! She didn’t run too far away at first– I caught-up with her at the end of the block and started calling her name. She thought it was a game or something (Greyhounds love to be chased) and sprinted off into the dark and was out of view in a few seconds.
I walked around in the neighborhood for about 15-20 minutes or so.. no sign of her anywhere. I had NO idea where she could of went. In the back of my mind I thought she might of been in the neighborhood still as I take her on walks and she seems to know it pretty well. However Greyhounds also chase anything that moves and get into a “zone” when they do– they do not notice or feel anything at all, they just to chase down whatever it is that caught their attention . Once the chase ends if it has lasted long enough they have no idea where they are at, where they came from, etc. That is, if they don’t get hit by a car or hurt themselves some other way to end the chase. I headed back home to grab a flashlight, a coat, and my car.
While I was out looking for Audrey, a friend who was coming over had called to tell me she was on her way over, so I returned her phone call and let her know I’d probably be out looking for the dog but to give me a call when she got to my place. I headed out in the car and drove around the neighborhood looking/listening for her including the places we usually walk and I still couldn’t find her. I finally gave-up on her being within the part of the neighborhood where I took her on walks and started looking around places where we’d never been. At this point I was starting to fear that the only way she would be caught was to be hit by a car, or maybe best case scenario walking-up to a stranger who’d read her tags knowing she’d probably got away somehow.
About twenty minutes of driving around hoping she’d at least find somewhere warm to stay for the night, my friend called:
“Hey, I’ve got your dog!”
“What?! Are you serious?”
“Yes, whenever I got here I called her name and she came running out of nowhere.”
What a relief! I was very surprised she stayed around the neighborhood as the times I’ve taken her to the big Open Space dog parks it’s been quite the debacle to get her chased down to leave.
This story probably seems silly to most dog owners, but it’s a fairly frequent occurrence to hear about Greyhounds which have escaped that get hit by cars, etc. One thing that is ingrained into your head when you adopt one is that they should NEVER be in a non-fenced area without a lead. They are usually pretty hard to catch once they get away.
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