"Two Walkers and Their Toddlers Saved by Officer Meyer"

I haven't had a chance to post this week, but we had an adventure on Wednesday evening that I had to share.

Laura and I decided to take the girls for a walk on the new bike path. We've decided that every Wednesday night we are going to walk, and the week before we walked at the community center, but since it was so nice we wanted to be outside.

So we headed out at about 5:40 p.m. from the start of the path by Bethel. We decided we would walk for an hour or to Highway 19 which ever came first. Well as we approached Hwy 19 we noticed two people walking towards us with a very large dog. After watching them for a few minutes we realized the dog was not on a leash. Remember we had both of our daughters with us in the strollers. As the two ladies approached us, they said, "That's not our dog. It's been following us since the lake." GREAT! This dog looked rather, let's say wild. We did notice that it had a flea collar on, but if it wouldn't have been for that we would have thought it was a wolf. It was very dirty and skinny. Since it had been running for two miles it was wheezing, and it looked like its back hips were out of place.

The ladies kept walking and the dog followed them, so we were relieved. We got to Hwy 19 right as we approached the hour mark, and decided to turn around. On our way back into town, we met the same ladies again. The dog was still with them, but this time, the dog turned around and began following us! Luckily the dog was very friendly, but it still made us very nervous! So since we were out in the country we weren't really sure what to do. We thought about calling dispatch, but we weren't in city limits. We decided to wait and see if the dog turned around. He didn't. As we neared Artic Cat, we realized the dog wasn't turning around, and was going to follow us all the way home. I was concerned because as we were approaching town, it seemed more interested in the passing cars. I didn't want to explain to Onna about how the big dog got squished by a car.

So I called dispatch. The lady who answered was very helpful. She probably thought I'd lost my mind completely when I told her we were being followed by a wolf-dog. Anyway, she said she'd send someone out. A few minutes later our heroes arrived. Officer Meyer, and another officer that I don't know came to the rescue. The other officer got out and called the dog by name. He said it lives out at the lake near him. The dog came right to him, but when he grabbed the dog's collar to put him in the car, the dog growled at him. He let go, and the dog came running over to us. They ended up trying to get a hold of the owner to come to get the dog, but I don't think they were able to find anyone home. We ended up finishing our walk, because the dog ran ahead of us and was circling the Citgo parking lot.

While the officer was trying to convince the dog to get into the car, Laura asked him what kind of dog it is. His reply was that it is a hybrid between a husky and a wolf. So we weren't completely losing our minds. It really did look like a wolf!!