Lost Dog

So Chacon (or as Ryker likes to call him: Chaca rama ding dong) decided to take a little walk about one night and left the yard.  He was picked up by someone and taken to Whatcom County Humaine Society.  We checked Skagit Humaine Society since it is about 5 miles from our house, but never imagined someone would take him to Whatcom since it is about 20 miles further.  Anyway after a couple days we found him.  I thought I loved that dog, but after this incident, I realized I don't love him nearly as much as Seth does.  If he ever gets hit by a car (knock on wood), I now hope that I'm the one who takes him to the vet because I don't know if I trust Seth to make a reasonable decision anymore and he may spend our kid's college money trying to save that big lug.  I know people who have spent crazy amounts of money like on ACL surgeries for their dogs (around $2500 a leg) and I've often wondered when it came down too it what my dollar threshhold would actually be for keeping my dog in good health.  I come from a place where you shoot your pets when the going gets tough and put them out of their misery.  I still believe in that theory, (although I would never shoot them myself, I'd have the vet put them down or someone else do it), but I also believe that having a pet is a big responsibility and you should do everything possible to give that pet a good quality of life.  I hope my dogs leave this world of old age and go out on their own without any intervention from me so I'm never forced to make a decision.  For now, I'm happy they are happy and healthy and that the biggest problems we have are old man Cosmos' allergies.....

See the piece of string "tied" to the pile of web?  That's Ryker's imaginary dog he'd been pulling around for weeks.

After Chacon busted through the invisible fence and left the yard, we only let him out of the shop when we were around and he saw the inside of the kennel for the first time since he was puppy.  Since Ryker was so into leading his imaginary dog around, we decided to give him a real one for a while. 

Chacon was not impressed.  You could tell he hated it.  It was a perfect punishment for running off and Ryker had a great time with it.

He would walk around for a while then say he and Chacon needed a little rest and try to get Chacon to sit down too.  I was entertained, but Chacon sure wasn't.

He really wanted Chacon to go through the puddles too and would lead him back and forth but Chacon always went around.