New skill every dog owner needs

Imagine taking your dog for a walk at 5:45am, half asleep, and sweating because it was 40 the night before & now it's heated up to 70, but you're in sweats. I digress... You've gone around the outside loop & are starting on the inside loop & Toby is joyfully running ahead, behind, to the right, & to the left on his flexi-leash that up until today you thought was the best thing ever.  That is until the unforeseen happens... Toby runs ahead & around the bumper of a car & the leash goes in between the brake light & fender. No worries, this has happened before & you have just pulled it out... but not today.... the leash is now caught on some loopy thing inside the car & your dog is stuck to the car.

What do you do? It's 1/4 mile back to the house & you can't leave Toby there because knowing your luck, the owner will come out & drive away and drag him to death OR Toby will freak out & run after you, dragging the car with him. You were too asleep to remember to bring your pocket knife with you ("doesn't everyone have one on them" asks Clifford?)  so the only thing left to do is.... chew your dog to freedom.  yep, crouch down & hope the neighbors don't look out their window or drive by & see you chewing for all your worth on a little nylon rope that has been designed to withstand breaking with a 100lb dog on it without fraying. This takes quite a while (20+ minutes) while you chew, saw back & forth, pull, try to keep Toby from running around & giving you rope burn on your fingers, chew some more, on & on...

And... if you're not already laughing hysterically, there's more. After about 10 minutes you look up & see a very small puppy coming from the garage area. It's an adorable 3-4 wk old black lab that has escaped the back yard & very happy with himself. He does his business & then notices a new friend in his yard! So, now I not only have a dog stuck to the car, I have a puppy that wants to play with the dog, that is currently attached to the nylon rope that is wrapped around my fingers as I chew it apart.

It all ends great - the leash is in the trash, the neighbors have no idea where those 2 new black marks came from on their bumper, the puppy has been 'rescued' from the big black dog that stepped on it & made it yelp and is back in the back yard planning his next escape, and Toby is off on his next adventure. Don't ask - I don't even want to know!

I just had to share & give everyone one more laugh this year!  No pictures to go with it, but hopefully you can visualize the amazing feats that a dog owner will do to keep a semblance of peace with the neighbors.