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Travvy Goes AWOLMarch 15, 2009 Heading homeward on our morning walk I let the leash drop. Trav heeled at my left side; I clicked with my right hand and occasionally treated with my left. I've been treating when he makes eye contact with me, as opposed to staring at the kibble-clenching fist. He caught the distinction PDQ. I have to pay close attention to catch the upward flick of his eyelashes. We did a couple of short sit-stays. Good puppy! Then my attention wandered for a goddamn second, and in that moment something rustled off in the woods. I was in time to see Trav go on red alert, but not quite fast enough to grab the end of the six-foot leash as it followed Travvy bounding into the woods. Damn, did he look beautiful or what? Following him was out of the question, so I walked home alone, reviewing the possibilities: in hot pursuit of rabbit of deer, Trav would crash into a car on Old County Road, which wasn't too far away; Trav would crash out of the woods just behind or in front of me; Trav would cross the road in search of the horses in the pastures at Misty Meadows, which had fascinating him a few minutes earlier; Trav would go in search of the Newfie mix whom we often see on our morning walks, whose house wasn't far away either; Trav would sooner or later wind up at T-beaux's house . . . He wasn't at T-beaux's house so I drafted Uhura Mazda and we drove slowly down my road, turned right on Old County, checked the next two driveways, then took another right on Pine Hill (the Newfie's road). No Travvy. I headed back -- searching further seemed futile, and deep down I thought he'd come home if he could, and with luck he wouldn't kill anything before he got back. I debated calling Communications; that's the responsible thing to do, but Travvy's already been profiled because I called when he went missing on Christmas Eve and then one of my neighbors called when he showed up on their porch one icy morning in January; Animal Control warned me that the next time he showed up on the log, I'd get a $50 ticket, so I decided against calling Communications unless I was desperate. I rounded the little circle in the road just before the right turn into my driveway -- and out of the woods around T-beaux's house bursts Travvy, making a beeline for me and Uhura. I swear, he was super relieved to see me: Where were you?? I thought you were lost!! My whole heart opened to my beautiful running homecoming puppy. It really was like that long-ago moment when a three-week-old puppy toddled toward me and I knew I'd found my Rhodry. Trav couldn't scramble into his seat (the one he mangled earlier this month) fast enough.
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