[06/29-30/2003]
This doodle requires a story.

If I am ever asked and agree to "walk" a beagle with two kids that have extreme behavioral problems, please shoot me. The dog was better behaved than the two girls, La and Li, in fact - they were fighting loudly over the dog and who could walk/carry her. Li, however, seemed conscious of the fact that people could hear them quite aways a way, was aware that she was the dog's owner and not La, and tried to keep it down. La, however, was unbelievably loud, forever shouting, selfish, didn't really recognize that she was not the only person present who had the right to the dog, and was generally being a pain in the ass.

At one point I took the leash over from both of them, but they continued to fight over it, grabbing it lower down and closer to the dog. Now, I had not known at the time but know now, that one of the other girls who owns the dog had loosened the dog's collar. With the additional stress that the girls were applying to the leash, the loose collar had stretched enough to enable the dog to escape it - which the dog did.

IMMEDIATELY ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. La went practically berserk and began crying, screaming and running after the dog (who ran all the faster). Li and I pursued, shouting not at the dog but at La, trying to get her back under control, to get her to listen to us (but because La has "issues" and has family who uses those issues as a way of assigning blame and never letting her take responsibility, we were extremely unsuccessful).

Li was remarkably under control, given that she is often very hyper. We agreed that she would ask the neighbor if she could use his phone, so we could get some backup (and a car) here. Meanwhile, La was screaming "LUCKY! LUCKY!" (the dog's name) and the dog was running ever faster, away from the child (I maintain that the dog has never liked La, who is loud and obnoxious). We moved through the houses and into an apartment complex. I was reluctant to leave Li behind with a strange neighbor I didn't know, but I didn't have much of a choice. Li was more in control of herself, I reminded myself as I ran after the crazy one and the dog. I needed to try to make sure La didn't do anything stupider than she was already doing. I was of a mind to stop, realizing that the dog would come if we were not screaming at it and sprinting after it, but I was unable to get that into La's head. I grabbed her wrist more than once and was trying to get her to calm down, but she would not listen and she struggled free.

Fortunately the dog did not go up the hill and into the commercial district nearby (if that would have happened, I probably would have had to tackle La, because there was no way in hell I was going to allow her into a zone with so many cars around). The dog instead sprinted through the apartment district, coming to the end of it. I got the folks who lived in one of the apartments to help us reclaim the dog, and as the dog was up against a fence, it looked like that was the end of it.

There was, however, a gap in the fence, and the dog went through that. La, still completely out of control, went through after it (and I couldn't very well leave her on her own, so I went through too). I got through, and the first thing to pass through my lips was "oh, shit." The situation had gotten worse - not only were we outside of the residential area with a scared dog and a crazy-ass kid, but we were on the railroad tracks.

If it hadn't of been for the gals from the apartment that helped us, we probably would not have gotten the dog at that rate (we had run after it for probably two miles). I yelled at all of them to get off the tracks, because there was a train coming. La yelled at us more than once to stop the train, as though we could get the people on it to help us or something. I shouted back, "No, the train can not stop!", but I don't think she understood.

The gals from the apartment finally nabbed the dog, which seemed to be afraid of the train. La immediately grabbed it, but was scratched by something in the underbrush and handed the dog over as she started to scream "I'm bleeding, I'm bleeding." I assured her that we would get it taken care of when we got back to the house, and we refused to let her take the dog after that (the gals from the apartment had a firm grip on it).

As we were walking back, Li showed up with our reinforcements - in a blessed car. La joined Li in the back, and we put the dog in the car. They tried to convince me to ride back to the house with them, but after the entire Great Dog Chase, I was not about to be in a cramped backseat with the hooligan, the dog, and Li. So I walked back.

When I got there, I did not go back to the main group. La was already recasting the story to show herself in a favorable light and place all blame on Li and I, something that pisses me off no matter what the age of the person engaging in such an act. And so I went downstairs and did a quick little doodle of The Great Dog Chase of 2003, and was more than happy to leave afterwards.

Look at this doodle and imagine the fun I had.