Terrier-ized on My Run

A couple days ago I had a hill repeat run workout scheduled in glorious 83 degree heat. My hamstrings were already screaming at me from a tough week of strength training so I wasn’t really looking forward to the run, but I knew it needed to get logged so I HTFU’d and pulled on my running shoes. After a 15 minute warm up that consisted of the shortest strides ever thanks to too-tight legs, I made it to the bottom of the hill I would climb six times.

Jason had a hill repeat run too, only he had eight climbs because he’s more beastly than I am. We both started at the Volunteer Park Cafe on Galer in Capitol Hill and would run from there up a steep 200 meters until we reached the entrance to Volunteer Park, then we’d turn around and jog back down. The hill is somewhat crappy — it’s a steady climb for most of the way up and then has a nice and shitty steep finish. My hamstrings actually felt less sore when I climbed so the repeats actually weren’t too bad.

I was running up the sidewalk during my last repeat when I glanced across the street and noticed two absolutely stupid looking Boston terriers running up the sidewalk too. A mild wave of annoyance crossed through me as I thought the owner was probably behind the dogs and had let them off the leash like a douchebag. When I got to the top of the hill, I turned around to descend but saw nobody in sight.

At this point the dogs had reached the top of the hill and were darting all over the place in a spazzy little frenzy. Some random dude who looked like Wilford Brimley emerged from the park, saw the terriers, and exclaimed, “Well where did you two come from?” He fended off oncoming cars while trying to shoo the dogs out of harm’s way. The terriers turned around and started shooting back down the hill.

By now Jason had realized that I was more interested in the dogs than in doing my cooldown, so he looked on in annoyance while I tried to flag the dogs down. He and I are mostly compatible with a few exceptions:

1. He hates when I make hard-boiled eggs or eat tuna fish because they’re stinky
2. I get annoyed every time he washes his face and flings water all over the bathroom mirror
3. He’s not a big “pet person”

Regarding #3, Jason and I are like the Sharks and the Jets from West Side Story. I grew up with a plethora of animals — since childhood, I’ve had a pet hamster, a bunny, a guinea pig, a cat (pre-allergies), and a wild assortment of dogs I’ve loved (my brother’s beagle) and loathed (two stupid, high maintenance chows). He, on the other hand, grew up in a pet-free home, so he’s never had much interaction with furry critters and is therefore pretty “meh” about them in general. I want to get a dog but he’s very eye-rolling about the matter. Since we’re at a standstill regarding bringing a dog into the household, I have to get my doggy fix with random pooches I come across.

Okay, back to the Boston terriers. The big one shot down the hill on the other side of the street but the little one started to run towards me. I clapped my hands and coaxed it over, then spent a few minutes chasing it around until I managed to half-tackle the damn thing (I should have logged the extra time and distance with the rest of my workout — “Chased dog: 3 minutes, zone 2 heart rate”). Once I scooped it up, I noticed that it had hilariously wonky eyes (one brown and one a milky blue that stared off into a different direction), a pink collar with no tags (ugh, wonderful, no identifying information), and a bunch of hard nipples poking out of its chest. Based on the color of the collar and the bundle of nips digging into my hand, I deduced that this hyper little bugger was female (either that or a very excitable male).

This is what the terrier looked like (it was indeed in full derp mode).

She panted happily in my arms while I walked down the hill, trying to figure out what the hell to do with her. The other terrier was nowhere in sight. Jason stood at the bottom of the hill staring daggers at me.

Jason: “What are you doing? Stop playing with that dog and finish your workout!”

Me: “I can’t leave her here! What if she gets hit by a car? I don’t want that on my conscience!”

Jason: “Ughhhh, you’re ruining our run…you’re not bringing it home.”

Me: “Don’t worry, I won’t. I’ll take her to the cafe and see if they can hold onto her.”

I strolled over to the cafe while an exasperated Jason followed close behind. He studied the menu (“Hey, this place looks pretty good, we should try it sometime”) while I T-1000’d my way through the restaurant, asking everyone if they recognized the dog. One of the employees scrounged up some rope and tied the dog’s collar to a mail dropbox outside and gave her some water. The employees said they’d keep an eye on her and could put up flyers in the area. I left my name and number in case they or the owner needed to get in touch with me, then Jason and I ran home.

Amusingly, Jason initially gave me shit for stopping to take care of a little dog:

Jason: “You’re such a dork.”

Me, semi-jokingly: “Whatever, I’m a hero. I saved that dog’s life.”

But as the night progressed, he’d occasionally bring up the dog, wondering aloud if the owner was able to find it. The first thing he said to me when we woke up the following morning was “I wonder how Random Dog is doing.” Underneath that tough exterior is a guy who loves animals as much as I do (or at least somewhat tolerates them).

On Saturday Jason went for a run and saw some “Missing Dog” flyers for a Boston terrier with a pink collar. Her name was Mona, which I think is a terrible name for a dog that derpy looking — she’s more of a “Trixie” or a “Mitzy” (Jason started calling her Vienna after that wonky-eyed chick from The Bachelor). He didn’t grab the flyer because he didn’t want to run with it, so I called the cafe the next day and they confirmed that someone saw the dog at the cafe, recognized it from the flyer, and called the number. The owner and Mona-Trixie-Vienna were reunited (let this be a valuable lesson for the owner to get a freaking tag for his dog), I helped a dog in need, and Jason was only minorly inconvenienced. Happy endings for all!