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Life as a Furrball!

To Leash or not to Leash

Tucker was not on a leash at the time of the accident and had indeed run into the road. Yes, I do feel that keenly and I wish every single day that I had had him leashed. But I did not and here is why:

I live on a residental road in a very good school district. We have tons of kids in our neighborhood who play outside and who have been known to chase a ball into the street. The majority of our neighbors drive slowly and carefully because of this. In fact one of the reasons the entire neighborhood is up in arms about Tucker's death is that it could have been any one of their kids. The driver never even saw him! She was not paying attention while speeding through a residential neighborhood. We have witnesses who can verify this. There were no skid marks and when she first hit him, the first thing she said is that she did not even know she hit anything (despite the fact that everyone within a reasonable range heard the collision - even in the house). She stopped because all of these people came screaming out of our garage because their friend and companion had been hit.

Second - Tucker was an extremely well trained dog. No matter what, he would stop when I told him to stop. He walked at a heel, did not chase animals while out walking with me (he loved to chase squirrels while not with me), and I literally could throw a ball to this ball crazy dog, let him run three or four steps and say, "Tucker, sit." And that furry butt of his plopped immediately to the ground. I did not think I had to worry about him. I was wrong, and I regret that to this day.

Thirdly - this was a neighborhood dog. The 7 year old boy next door played with him, the 9 year old down the street did as well. The poor man who had suffered massive brain trauma and has no short term memory, remembered Tucker, and came down daily to see him. Everyone knew where Tucker lived.

The lessons to be learned from this are two fold. First and foremost - it's YOUR duty as a driver in a residental neighborhood to drive slowly and be fully aware of everything around you. Don't daydream, don't chat on the cell phone, don't try to change the CD in your dash or fiddle with your radio buttons. Drive. You car can be a weapon.

Second - even if your dog is thoroughly trained - make sure there is nothing like a ball, a squirrel or anything, that can pull him away from you when you are not aware. It's not worth it and even your neighbor, who knows that there's a big beautiful dog that lives at your house, might miss him if he sneaks off without you knowing.

My Dear Tuckerboo, we miss you

An article ran in the San Jose Mercury News today on Tucker. It spoke of his life and his death and the way it affected a neighborhood. For some reason the editor saw fit to run it on the front page. Most people I know do not get as nice an obituary, but he deserved it. He truly was a once in a life time dog.

What's interesting to see is the reaction of so many people to this story. Most are wonderfully caring and supportive but some question the right of a mere dog to inhabit the front page of a newspaper - afterall, a dog is not a capable of thought, of feelings.... They are not humans...

I feel very sorry for those who feel this way. They have never spent time with a great dog if they truly believe this. I know, without a doubt, that Tucker was capable of thought and even had the ability to reason. We were out training for search one day. He did area search, which is where a dog finds any person in a given area, but does not track one specific person. Scent is a funny thing. It acts a lot like smoke and is not always where one would think it would be. Well, the person was hiding up on a hill, in a tree. To one side of the person was a creek and on the other, a meadow. Dogs typically don't look up, which is why we place people in trees - so they HAVE to learn to look and sniff up. Well, Tucker found the scent cone in a weird place. He moved around a bit, sniffing, then stopped and stood still for a moment. Slowly he stepped forward, then slowly he stepped backward, sniffing the entire time. I could see him literally analyzing the scent. For a long moment he stood stock still, then he slowly turned his head towards the hidden person, and ended up staring them in the eye. With a jubiliant "WOOF!" he raced over to the person then back to me to let me know he had found her.

Sad sad news

Tucker was struck my a car today, March 20, 2007 and did not survive. He will be sore sorely missed. His family is absolutely devestated.