Runaway Pup!

Thanksgiving day was fun. We visited my wife's family, and we visited my family (same day!). My wife's family gathering was small and vaguely sane. My family's gathering was huge and chaotic.

Let me quickly introduce you to two new people. "Random Grand-Daughter #1" and "Random Grand-Daughter #2" (RGD1 and RGD2). These two are the Great-Grand-Daughters of my Great-Aunt. I had never met them before. They are, I think, somewhere around 10 and 12 years old.

I stepped out onto the front porch of my grandparent's house, where my niece, oldest nephew, and RGD1 were playing. I had my camera, and I was going to see if I could get a good kid-pic. I hadn't been outside more than about 3 seconds when RGD1 pointed at the road and shouted, "Hey, there goes Grandpa's dog!".

I looked where she was pointing, and sure enough a black chihuahua was going in a dead run down the side of the road. I looked back to where the kids were playing, but they were already headed off in a dead run after the dog. With sudden horror, I realized that I was watching a 12, 6, and 4-year old run toward the road.

I stuck my head inside the house. "Runaway dog!" I shouted, and then I was off and running. I caught up to the 4-year old, and told her to go back to the house. Then, my sister came outside and shouted for the 6-year old, who turned around and came back. Good deal... now the niece and nephew are taken care of. However, RGD1 was no longer in sight. Neither was the runaway pup. I glanced back toward the house, and nearly got run over by RGD2, who had just caught up to me.

"Where'd she go?" RGD2 asked. "This way I think," I replied, and then we were off on the hunt. Then ZOOM my dad blazes by in his truck... he's also on the hunt.

RGD2 and I walked a block or so further, trying to figure out which direction our two runaways went. Then, RGD2 pointed to an approaching truck. My dad was on his way back, and he's got RGD1 in the cab with him. There was no other traffic, so he stopped for us.

"Did you find the dog?" I asked. Dad shook his head and replied, "It was somebody else's dog."

Back at my grandparents house, there was a whole crew of people gathered around Grandpa's trailer. They had checked to make sure that both of his dogs were still locked up in there. The crowd could see us getting smaller and smaller in the distance, terrorizing somebody else's dog. The crowd was amused, to say the least.

So I spent part of my Thanksgiving holiday terrorizing a stranger's dog. How was *your* holiday?