The Strangest Thing

You all know I have a beagle, a feisty one at that, only eleven months old. Well, today, after I got home, I let her out, and soon after she ran right back in sniffing at anything, smelling my pants, wanting to bite anything remotely curious, basically making a nuisance of herself. So I let her out into the back to burn off some of that excess energy chasing lizards, smelling for snake tracks, chewing on pine cones, and barking at birds that torpedo across the yard just out of her reach. She reluctantly shares her space with them. Okay, now for a little peace and quiet, I thought.

So here I was watching a rerun of one of the final episodes of "Happy Days", when I realized at the end of the program how peaceful it had been for a while and that strangely enough Ginger had not come to scratch on the door as usual. I said to myself," It's time to call her in." So I called, "Ginger", and no answer. No shaking of her collar, clanging her small rabies badges together like a bell. No rustling in the bush, no immediate lifting of the head to acknowledge I was calling her. Umm. How quiet. This is not like her, where is she?

So I stepped out of the back porch and into the back yard. There on the grass about four yards away lying motionless was Ginger Doodles. She was sprawled out in a odd manner like she had been shot or something. I called to her and she didn't move. I thought oh my God, is she dead? I called her again and no movement. She might be asleep but how strange she was not responding. As I got closer, I noticed she had a metal garden divider twisted around her harness. It had gotten caught on her harness and was twisted around twice causing her to be almost asphyxiated. Her eyes were open and she blinked. Relief! She was still breathing but not moving anything other than her eyes. Would she be okay? I immediately loosened her harness. Before I could count to three she jumped up and started running around in celebration of her freedom. It was a delight to see and it immediately dissipated all my fears. She has been sniffing and running around joyfully ever since, but she did give me quite a scare. Que susto!

Now I have to get some other garden protection because those 10 inch metal ones definitely are too dangerous for the energetic toddler beagle that she is.