It was a beautifully cold and foggy morning, and even though I woke up late, I wanted to run. I’ve been sick with a virus for a few days, and this would be my first run in a week. My faithful 4-legged running partner was ready to go. He knows when he sees the shoes, the hat, and water bottle that a run is coming. He starts pacing and whining around the bedroom while I’m getting myself ready. FINALY – she’s done! He sprints to the back door waiting for his leash.
We took off at a slow pace and the lingering head cold didn’t seem to cause too many side effects. We took our normal Saturday route, through a walking trail and then to our turn-around park. If the park is empty, which it normally is, I let Brodie off his leash. He knows the boundaries of the park and doesn’t go beyond them, so I don’t worry about him. I do a few laps around the park and he is with me sometimes, other times he takes off like a shot, sometimes he tromps through the bushes playing king of the jungle, sometimes he chases squirrels, my point…the time is his to have off his leash and I let him have it.
Today – he took off like a shot. He really needed this run; with my cold he had been walked but didn’t have a chance to let out his energy like this. I didn’t see him my first lap around the park. He found me as I made a turn towards the water fountain, I assumed he wanted water (he knows how to drink out of the fountain and meets me there when he wants water). Today – he didn’t want water – he wanted to show me his prize. A tennis ball he’d found somewhere in the park. He kept running with me, turning his head every few minutes to show me his prize. It was like a diamond to him – he couldn’t put it down, he couldn’t leave it behind, and I knew he wanted to take it home.
I did a few more laps around the park, Brodie here and there around me, with the tennis ball firmly in his mouth. He wasn’t letting go of it. I stupidly tried explaining to him that carrying it home while running wasn’t going to happen – he ignored my commands to “drop it” (he must have known I would leave it behind). He wouldn’t budge; he carried that ball out of the park back onto the trail. He ran with me and carried it in his mouth, never dropping it, even when he chased a pair of squirrels up a tree.
Tennis Balls & Labradors
One mile down the trail I had to re-leash him as we neared the street, he was struggling to breathe, keep the ball in his mouth and run. I wanted to tell him “I told you so”…but that didn’t matter at this point. We were ½ or ¾ of a mile to the house, I picked up the saliva covered wet and nasty tennis ball and told him “I’ll carry it”. He didn’t trust me; he kept an eye on me and his ball while we finished our run, looking up at the ball in my hand every few seconds. At home he grabbed some water, but immediately came back for his prize. I let him have it – it was his diamond after all. We have 20-30 tennis balls around our house, to take to the beach, the park, the houseboat, but this one….it’s special; Brodie found it himself and he cherishes it like I would a diamond.
Living with a Labrador 