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.

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