Freedom

First a scary vet picture that my owners got from a “friend”. Thought it looked like me! It’s not!









My owner mom likes to let me run free. I am usually pretty good. I know my name and most of the time I listen. Almost always. I explore but I look for her and come back.

Arrow takes off. My owner mom thinks it’s because he hates us, but really he’s just crazy. She keeps trying. She let us loose in a soccer field one day. Arrow was pretty good. The next time she let us play there. Arrow ran out the other side and down the street. A man opened his door, and Arrow ran in his house.

Last week Arrow ran out of our house in Denver. He likes to run to the park. Crossing at least one street. He ran down the back ally. We went after him. Then he ran back up the ally. We hoped he was coming back to our door, but he raced right past us, down to the front of our building, and around the block. We caught up with him in the park, playing with the dogs. At night lots of our neighbors take their dogs to the park for Yappy Hour. Illegal off-leash mingling in Cheesman Park.

Today my mom took us to a lake with a big sandy place to run around. We played. Then Arrow noticed the frozen lake. He ran across it. Then he came back. He ran across again. All this time my mom’s yelling: Deefor NO. Arrow come back. I stayed on the shore (like a good dog—where's my treat?). There are houses on the other side. Arrow ran around and finally came back across the lake with half a coconut in his mouth.


He ran up to some people taking a walk, and my mom was able to step on his leash. She left it on to catch him. (This a picture of the first time he came back. My mom was screaming so much later. She put the camera away.) He was sure tired when he got home.

Freedom means a lot to Arrow. Like Janis Joplin says: Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to loose. The world is a big adventure for him. My mom worries that he will get hit by a car someday. He doesn't think about what he might lose.