An antler and summer highlights

On a happier note regarding Ash, he made a new friend last weekend (the weekend after his escape) and was introduced to an antler. My friend Meredith was visiting last weekend, and we thankfully (considering his previous nerve-wracking adventure) were able to introduce Ashy to her. Meredith and I were friends both at Cornell and Illinois, and she was in town a couple of days ahead of her husband for a wedding. Meredith suggested I bring him home an antler that we found while out shopping at a pet store (her dog likes them), and I was excited that Ash finds it interesting! I say interesting because I'm not really sure he knows what to do with it yet; it doesn't soften the way that his raw hide chews do. However, he has gnawed on it on several occasions and likes to lick the inside if you hold it for him.

Ash and Meredith - especially in his state of exhaustion, he really liked snuggling with her

Ash and the antler

Also, I realize that we have neglected to share several videos and pictures that we have taken of Ash over the course of the summer, so I thought I would do that here!

Ash at woodchuck: While at Woodchuck (David's family's camp in the Adirondacks) we practiced a lot with Ash of leash and, despite is recent escape, he did very well. He stuck right by the house, would follow us when we left to go to the dock or back to the house, and mostly listened to our "come" and "stay" commands. Come could use some work for sure though. Stay he does pretty well. He LOVED playing with the ball at the beach/dock area, and while it took him a bit to work up the courage he finally swam out to us at the end of the dock when we were in swimming. I wish I had a picture of him doing this because he'd let us hold his legs while he just floated in the water, and he balanced all four of his legs on one of the foam noodles!!

Ash, Coal, and haircuts: We've had Coal here with us a few times this summer, and he and Ash are so cute together! Their latest "game" is wrestling while walking on the leash. As you can imagine, this leads to very tangled leashes - often wrapped around me. Everyone walking by laughs at the situation. I think I would two! Imagine a me at my impressive 5 ft with two little black dogs zipping in circles around me and rolling around, with all three of us getting entwined in a tangle of leashes. I managed to capture one short video clip:

Given the heat and humidity of the summer, we have tried to find nice short haircuts for both Ash and Coal. They were barely recognizable after their trims!

Ash with his "new 'do

Coal: Caroline, what did you do with all of my hair? 

Ash's favorite neighbor dog: On a walk several months ago we met Oscar, who lives a couple of blocks away and is often out in his yard. From the start, Ash LOVED this dog. He ran up to the fence and whined and tried to get in. Then he and Oscar proceeded to mark various areas of the fence one after the other. One day while we were letting them interact through the fence Oscar's owner came out and said Ash was welcome to come in and play. After the first play session, he extended the invitation and said anytime Oscar was out we could let Ash in to play, even if he (the owner) wasn't outside at the time. Now, each time we walk by Oscar, Ash starts pulling on the leash and whining to get closer - then waits eagerly while I let him in. Here is a video of Ash and Oscar from yesterday's walk:

Daily life: Here are a couple of random pictures and videos of Ash that are representative of a typical "day in the life of Ash". We go on walks, we run in the yard, he watches the world go by from the back of a chair in the living room, he plays with some toys, chews some raw hides and treats, does his tricks for me, sleeps at my feet, etc. Hard life he has! We'd like to start taking him to more dog parks, but we haven't found one in Somerville we are thrilled with yet. Luckily, while we walk on the bike path in the evenings and mornings he gets to meet and play with many dogs, so he still gets a decent amount of socialization.

This is his favorite perch. He spent the first several days after his escape sleeping, so I was happy when a day or so ago he decided to resume his monitoring of the outdoor world.

I love it when he sleeps like this! He looks like such a goof ball.

Ash chewing on a rawhide while David and I watched a TV show

This is a great picture, it's currently my phone background. This was taken after a bit of running in the yard - he got tired so instead just lay there and watched me.

As I write this post, Ash is flopped half in, half out of his snoopy bed under the table I'm working at. He'll perk up when its time for our afternoon walk :)

A nerve-wracking 18 hours

Last week we had quite a scare with little Ash, and as a result we are now giving him even more love and attention than before. As you saw previously, Ash was in Randolph with David's parents and was having a lot of fun in their yard and in the river. However, on Wednesday he decided to escape from his yard tie out and take off on an extended adventure of his own. While I don't know what was going on in his cute little head, I imagine he bit off a bit more than he could chew.

Susan ran after Ash after he'd chewed through his rope tie out, but anyone who has seen Ash run knows that catching him is nearly a lost cause. He took off towards the golf course (right by their house) and was spotted not long after by golfers who said he was "running like a bat out of hell". Susan and Harvie chased him around town, talking to everyone they saw, for about an hour, to no avail. They then decided it was time to call David, who called me. David's friend Tyler was helping them look, his parent's were asking around town as they went, and the police had been alerted. I immediately called my mother crying (naturally), and begged her and Tommy to take the dogs and go down to Randolph and help find him. It didn't require much begging, as my mom (like everyone) has grown to love Ash as well and she couldn't stand the thought of him out on his own. She was also crying.

The hastily thrown together poster - in hindsight, we maybe should have offered a reward. 

I spent most of the night back and forth on the phone, trying to stay updated on the search efforts. Tommy (with his dog Brandy) and Harvie searched until dark, and then my mom and Susan continued searching (with Coal, who was seriously a trooper and clearly knew something was wrong) until after midnight. David had made posters alerting people of Ash's escape and asking them to call if they spotted him. The positive news was that everyone who had seen him had seen him at either the high school or the golf course, both of which are near David's parents house and those locations combined with the other sightings confirmed that Ash was running in a large circle around the house. The obvious negative news was that he ran from everyone who approached him, and he was still missing. David and I found it unbearable not being able to help (he was in North Carolina for work and I was in Illinois for work).  I barely ate, and slept at best a restless hour, and was on the 6:00am flight out of Champaign. It was both heartbreaking and terrifying to think of Ash out there alone at night.

In the morning we were relieved when someone called and had again spotted him by the high school. That person gave Mom, Susan, and Coal a ride to where Ash had been spotted. Unfortunately, it was near a corn field, which Mom and Susan promptly dove into calling for Ash. Not long after they started searching that area though they received another phone call that he was back on the golf course. Our dog is speedy! They went back up there, and by that time Tommy and Brandy were back on the search as well. During the morning events Ash was once spotted laying in his bed on the porch (where we'd left it so he would know it was home), but he ran off before anyone could swipe him up into safety. Tommy commandeered a golf cart and was speeding around the golf course and streets surrounding David's parents house, and after seeing Ash far off on the golf course he had the thought that "home" might be Ash's next stop. He zipped over there with Brandy (Susan was waiting at home at that point) and while he was touching base with Susan and a neighbor Ash popped his little head up in the back yard. He looked ready to bolt again, so Tommy let Brandy off her leash (she is older and stays close to people) and the two dogs began to play. Tommy took that opportunity to scoop Ash up and bring him in the house. Wow were David and I relieved to get the phone call that he was safe! I was anxiously sitting in the Chicago airport at the time.

Ash smelled awful, was covered in dirt, mud, bird ox, and was very tired, but otherwise unharmed. He received tons of love from his "grandparents" and "dog siblings", a bath, food, and water. Susan then hopped in the car in time to meet me halfway between Randolph and Boston so that I could bring Ash home after my flight. After the stress of him being gone for 18 hours, David and I wanted to be with Ash! I was so happy to see his little tail wagging at me. I'm proud of how smart Ash was on his adventure, and the fact he was able to find his way home to an unfamiliar house. We heard from the golf course that he ran out of their equipment shed when they opened it in the morning, and my mom thought she heard him barking the night before but it was muffled (she assumed he was further off), but we now think that he might have spent the night in the equipment shed. I hope he did, because at least he would have been safe and sheltered there. We also think that the scent of the other dogs following his circular pattern may have helped direct him home. However it worked out, we couldn't be more happy and more relieved to have him safely back with us. This dog is a super special part of our lives! Needless to say, we have replaced his leash with an un-chewable plastic coated steel cable, and any future tie outs will be made of the same type of cable. We were lucky this time, and we don't want to go through this nightmare again!

Resting up at home after his day of running

Can I just say that my littlest sister is awesome???

Well, actually, I think that both of my sisters, and my brother, and everyone else in my family (and future family) are all pretty awesome. This post is specifically devoted to Alex because I just saw a a super cool video of her water skiing, and I wanted to share it with all of you!

Alex wearing her typical summer garb: a life vest

Alex (a junior in high school) spends her summers at Joe's Pond, and as a result has turned into an absolutely exceptional water skier. I remember when she was just a toddler, cruising around the lake on the trainer skis... and then at age FOUR she was on a single ski.

This really is a blurry picture, you don't need your eyes checked

Now she competes on weekends in water ski tournaments! Check out this video (the one that inspired this blog post) to see her in action!

Oh, and when she needs a break from water skiing she and my dad do cool things like ride around the lake like on chairs: 

Ash In Randolph

Caroline had a trip to Illinois for two weeks, so Ash got to spend some time with the Grandparents. The first week was with Ami, and the second week is going to be with my parents so I could see him for the weekend.

Ash was super excited to see me at the handoff, with his little tail moving about a million miles per hour. He was also excited to see my mom, but wasn't as excited about Dad. A walk with him consisted of the two of them competing to see who would walk first. I am pretty sure Ash won as he ended up getting carried for the majority of the walk.

We made a run for Ash between the house and a tree, which he seemed pretty happy with. He actually proved his strength and broke weak sections in the chain twice! I manage to get a clip of him rolling around in the grass.

We also went and played in the river. True to Ash form, as soon as he heard the water he was pulling hard at the leash to go and play. I let him off leash for a bit, which he absolutely loved. I got only a little on video, as his other escapades were about twice as fast as what he shows here. We need to work on the "come" command, as he really didn't want to go back on the leash. As soon as it came out he would take off on another lap of the river and wouldn't get within 3 feet of me.