It's HAILING, It's Pouring!

 We weren't sure it would ever happen, but at the very end of September, the weather finally started to cool down, and in a big way - it hailed! It was the first time I got to experience a true Texas thunder storm. It was crazy! The sky was almost constantly lit up by lightening, the thunder was loud and rolling, the raindrops were HUGE, and there were chunks of hail the size of marbles pelting the ground! And in the middle of all of this, I ended up outside, barefoot and in a white skirt, running through the neighborhood .. chasing a dog.

Yep, while I was taking the above pictures from the front door of Ben and Caitlin's house, Rocky seized the opportunity to escape, and this time he didn't wait for me to catch him two houses down. He bolted down the street and around the corner.

Jeff was at a work party, Caitlin was having a late night at work, and Bethany and Becca were with Grandma, so Ben was the only one home and I knew that he was just settling into a Halo party in the other room, but I had to act fast because Rocky just runs without paying attention to cars or anything else and I was fairly certain that if I didn't catch him, he would never find his way home. So, I grabbed Luke - who was making a much slower escape with one foot out the door - and put him just inside the house, pulled the door shut and took off sprinting after that crazy dog. I heard Luke dissolve into screams and sobs immediately after the door closed behind me and felt bad knowing Ben would have to put his game on hold, but I continued to run after the escaped dog.

In my bare feet, I chased Rocky down sidewalks and across lawns and although I was never too far behind, he just wouldn't let me get anywhere near him. If he stopped to sniff something, he would take off before I could even get close enough to graze his fur with my fingertips. Within seconds of leaving the house, I was soaked through with cold rain water and I was being pelted by hail, but I couldn't let someone else's family pet get away (although, I'm not entirely sure Caitlin wouldn't have thanked me if I had). Rocky led me in a high-speed chase halfway around the block before he finally got himself cornered in a tiny area between a fence and the side of a house. I could practically touch both the house and the fence simultaneously so I knew the dog wasn't going anywhere. He knew it too. He didn't even try to run when I reached out and grabbed his collar.

That's when the fun began: dragging a wet, gasping and wheezing dog by the collar for a quarter of a mile in the pouring rain. I refused to pick the sopping wet dog up. He had already ruined my attempt to look cute for when my husband got home. I wasn't about to let him get his wet-dog-smell and fur all over me too. Plus, he was in trouble so if he wanted to choke himself, that was fine with me. I had to half run in a crouching position as I reached low enough to keep a good grip on Rocky's collar, so to look on the bright side, it was a fabulous quad workout!

After what seemed like forever, Ben and Caitlin's house came into view and at the same time, Ben pulled up next to me in the Jeep with Luke in the back seat. Apparently, from the moment I left, Ben had been frantically searching for my keys so that he could come help me and he had finally found them just in time to drive the car 20 feet and then turn right back around. Oh well, it's the thought that counts.

I would love to say that that was the last time I made the mistake of leaving the door open long enough for Rocky to escape, but just a week later, when Jeff was bringing in a package after work, it happened for a third time. This time Rocky ran straight across a busy street and into the grass on the other side. Traffic stopped to let him pass and then to let me follow him. I was barefoot again and my feet were collecting wet cut grass as I ran. I was saved when a Nissan Cube suddenly pulled off the road and started driving in the grass in hot pursuit. When it stopped, Rocky ran over to investigate and jumped right in. The three people in the car ended up being Ben and Caitlin's neighbors two houses down. They recognized me and Rocky from when they saw us race past their house in the middle of a thunder storm. Rocky had firmly wedged himself between the two front seats so the good Samaritans kindly invited me to hop in and gave the two of us a ride home - wet, grassy feet and all.

The next time I noticed Rocky making an escape, I stopped him with a full-out diving tackle three feet from the door.