Flight Risk

My new little girl, Lassie, is terrified of me. When I bend down to pet her, she cries and runs or hits the floor. Her previous owners must have abused her. I would like to track down those evil people and do something to them. It's a good thing that their identity is confidential because otherwise I would end up in jail.

To try and show Lassie that I'm not a threat, I've been lying down on the floor and rolling over on my back. She'll immediately run over, lick me and then plop down on the floor next to me. We're making progress and I hope that some day I can just reach down and pet her without assuming the submissive position.

While I was bringing in the trash cans today, Lassie slipped out the gate and took off. I called her name and she just ran faster, straight for a busy street. If she made it to the street, she wouldn't last five seconds. I also had no hope of catching her. I'm not in bad shape, but I can't outrun a young, healthy dog.

She then made a U turn, headed back and ran past me. I skinned my knee when I lunged at her. She started running up the hill down the middle of the street. I followed, running as fast I could while yelling, "Lassie". Whenever a car came along, I started flapping my arms in the middle of the street to alert them to slow down. I hope that they saw the dog and didn't just think that I had gone crazy.

It was totally hopeless. She was either going to get hit by a car or she was going to disappear around a bend and I would never see her again. I could not run anymore and decided to try one last trick. I laid down on someone's lawn and rolled over on my back. A few seconds later, she ran over to me and sat down next to me. Got her. I picked her up and carried her home.

I was shaking from fear and anger. I had been wanting to give her a bath since I got her, but had been stalling because I didn't want to traumatize her. Now, she was going to get that bath. Afterwards, I had to take a bath because I had as much soapy water on me as she did.

We've since made up.