Nowwhere were we. Ah. North Carolina.
Coon Dog Day was great except for when our (now we know) gun shy dog wriggled out of her collar and took off on us, trying to escape the Civil War era soldiers firing muskets at the start of the parade.
Dogslife had time to tweet Here comes the parade, I had time to take these shots, and..
away went our dog, along the railway tracks and into the deep, foreign woods, and after her we went: hubby in sandals, and I, 7 months pregnant, in flip flops that broke shortly after we began our chase. Its hard to find a dog in the woods when youre a) having to wade through brambles and wild raspberries that are cutting up your legs and b) your dog has no collar and is therefore completely silent. Were hollering, calling her, trying to sound as sweet and reassuring as we can. Both of us are unsucessful at whistling her whistle, because the heat and stress has just dried up our mouths. Im trying not to cry too much, but I just keep imagining the trip back to Toronto without our dog and I cant bear it. Im sobbing. Hubbys working out in his head what to offer as a reward, since we saw coonhound puppies for sale earlier that day for $150. He figures (he later tells me) $300 would be enough to convince someone NOT keep a gun shy, mostly-useless coonhound, but instead buy a puppy. Maybe two!
He finally tells me to go back out to the railway tracks to see if shes out there, trying to keep me calm so I dont go into labour in a country in which well have to pay for the birth. At some point I get tired of carrying all my camera equipment so I dump it by the side of the tracks, because I figureits Saludano ones going to steal it. I think shortly after that I broke down again, hubby came out of the woods to comfort me, and thenthere she wascautiously coming back up the tracks towards us. The problem was, to get back to us she had to walk in the direction of the parade, which she was not willing to do, as she could still hear sirens (from the volunteer fire department). We tell her to sit. We go to her. Hubby instructs me to hold my dog, which is both useful for us to keep her restrained, and it helps me calm down. I put her in a tight hold around her body and grab her leg once my arm is around her. Im not letting go no matter what she decides at this point. We put her halti on, but dont even connect it to the leash, then leash her at her collar. I think hubby tightens her collar. Its felt like hours. Its been about 10 minutes.
We had to wait out the parade (its waaaaaay in the distance), because everyvtime we tried to walk in that direction, she tried to go the other way, tail firmly against her belly.
Eventually I had to go to the bathroom, and as I walked away, hubby asked her if she wanted to follow Mummy, and she did. So we were able to get back to the festivities. Its really too bad she wasnt in full form because she would have kicked ass at the treeing contest.
And really, nothing will give you a better impression of what Coon Dog Day and coonhounds are all about than video with sound. I cant really be bothered to figure out how to embed them so youll have to go here, here and here, if youre interested. You can see Addie being unusually quiet in the last one.
Coon Dog Day was great except for when our (now we know) gun shy dog wriggled out of her collar and took off on us, trying to escape the Civil War era soldiers firing muskets at the start of the parade.
Dogslife had time to tweet Here comes the parade, I had time to take these shots, and..
away went our dog, along the railway tracks and into the deep, foreign woods, and after her we went: hubby in sandals, and I, 7 months pregnant, in flip flops that broke shortly after we began our chase. Its hard to find a dog in the woods when youre a) having to wade through brambles and wild raspberries that are cutting up your legs and b) your dog has no collar and is therefore completely silent. Were hollering, calling her, trying to sound as sweet and reassuring as we can. Both of us are unsucessful at whistling her whistle, because the heat and stress has just dried up our mouths. Im trying not to cry too much, but I just keep imagining the trip back to Toronto without our dog and I cant bear it. Im sobbing. Hubbys working out in his head what to offer as a reward, since we saw coonhound puppies for sale earlier that day for $150. He figures (he later tells me) $300 would be enough to convince someone NOT keep a gun shy, mostly-useless coonhound, but instead buy a puppy. Maybe two!
He finally tells me to go back out to the railway tracks to see if shes out there, trying to keep me calm so I dont go into labour in a country in which well have to pay for the birth. At some point I get tired of carrying all my camera equipment so I dump it by the side of the tracks, because I figureits Saludano ones going to steal it. I think shortly after that I broke down again, hubby came out of the woods to comfort me, and thenthere she wascautiously coming back up the tracks towards us. The problem was, to get back to us she had to walk in the direction of the parade, which she was not willing to do, as she could still hear sirens (from the volunteer fire department). We tell her to sit. We go to her. Hubby instructs me to hold my dog, which is both useful for us to keep her restrained, and it helps me calm down. I put her in a tight hold around her body and grab her leg once my arm is around her. Im not letting go no matter what she decides at this point. We put her halti on, but dont even connect it to the leash, then leash her at her collar. I think hubby tightens her collar. Its felt like hours. Its been about 10 minutes.
We had to wait out the parade (its waaaaaay in the distance), because everyvtime we tried to walk in that direction, she tried to go the other way, tail firmly against her belly.
Eventually I had to go to the bathroom, and as I walked away, hubby asked her if she wanted to follow Mummy, and she did. So we were able to get back to the festivities. Its really too bad she wasnt in full form because she would have kicked ass at the treeing contest.
And really, nothing will give you a better impression of what Coon Dog Day and coonhounds are all about than video with sound. I cant really be bothered to figure out how to embed them so youll have to go here, here and here, if youre interested. You can see Addie being unusually quiet in the last one.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
velocity:
See, all this time I was anxiously awaiting an update, thinking you'd gone to a corn dog festival. Coon dogs are lovely, but they're not battered and fried on sticks.
obd:
Bad Addie! Other than the scare, that looks like a lovely trip.