It started snowing around five in the afternoon, and it looked as though the snow would be sticking around for a while, so I decided to take the basenjis to the dog park. It was fairly slow going, because none of the roads had been salted, and nobody wanted to risk spinning off the road and down some steep hillside.
As I was making my way up the final narrow, twisting road to the peak of Observatory Hill, I passed an SUV, whose driver hailed me. He had just come from the dog park, where his Akita, Sammy, had jumped the fence* and wandered off into the woods. The driver, whose name was Dennis, said he was going down to the base of the hill to look for Sammy there. He gave my his phone number and asked me to call him if I saw Sammy. I assured him I would, and continued on. At the top of the hill, Sammy was waiting.
I called Dennis, who asked me to leash Sammy while he worked his way back up the hill. I unleashed Klea, and leaving her in the Basenjimobile with Louis, I walked over to Sammy. I gave him my hand to sniff, and he growled at me. I tried again, and he growled again. At that point, Sammy decided to place the Basenjimobile between himself and me, and the two of us circled the car for a couple of minutes.
I paused by the front bumper for a couple of minutes, then decided to have another go at leashing Sammy. I made my way around to the back of the car, but Sammy was gone. He had apparently wandered off directly away from the car, and was now nowhere in sight. I called for him a couple of times, but to no avail.
With a sigh, I let the basenjis out of the car, and led them into the enclosure. Just after unleashing them, I saw Dennis's SUV drive up, and I headed back out of the enclosure to tell him the bad news.
Trotting along behind the SUV was Sammy.
When Dennis started around the SUV in my direction, I pointed behind him to where Sammy was walking up. He turned and saw the dog and immediately began scolding him for running away. I returned to the basenjis in the enclosure.
After securing Sammy in his SUV, Dennis came over to the enclosure to thank me for my assistance. The basenjis of course came trotting up to greet this new person, and I introduced them. We talked about our respective dogs for a minute or so, then he thanked me again, shook my hand, and returned to his SUV. The basenjis watched as he drove away.
*Unlike the dog park back in Newport, with its five foot high chain link fence, the dog park atop Observatory Hill has a fence that is only three feet high, and some of the larger dogs can, and do, jump over it.
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