Bailey's Most Glorious Journey

Just thought I'd take a few minutes to update everyone on Bailey's new found unquenchable desire for freedom from the confines of our estate. On Saturday evening as Amanda and I were headed out the door to go to a friend's birthday party, Bailey saw her opportunity and bolted out of our gate and into the streets of our neighborhood. No big deal--she does this all the time. I got the car keys from Amanda and my neighbor from across the street (he's 14 years old and a very good sport!) and we set out to chase Bailey down. I will go ahead and tell you that at this point I'm wearing shorts, a t-shirt and am barefooted. Just remember the barefooted part.

Here is the route we took. I apologize that the maps start in the same spot in teh middle of the route. I couldn't figure out how to make it start in different places. You'll have to click and drag to the right to find the start (at our house on Dawson Road) and then click and drag each map to follow the route.


View Bailey's Journey in a larger map

The route started out normally and I usually catch up to her somewhere on Freestone because she has never left the neighborhood before. But this time was different. She got to the end of Freeport and made a brief stop at the house on the right corner where Freestone intersects with Kirby. When I saw her leaving, there was a large Boxer by the name of Oscar following her. I knew his name was Oscar because his entire family was chasing after him yelling, "Oscar, Oscar!!!" So I got back in the car and headed out onto Kirby while the rest of the entourage headed out there on foot. About 100 yards down Kirby, Bailey and Oscar hooked a left and ran out into an open field. I chased Bailey and Oscar through the open field (still barefooted) until I finally caught up with Oscar about 200 yards in. However, Bailey kept running until she nearly reached the houses in Southern Trails. At this point, Oscar's family had caught up and I told them I was looking for a new home for Bailey anyway and she had just made the job a lot easier. I had resigned myself to let her go.

So my neighbor and I walked back to the car (which I left in the middle of Kirby with the hazards on) through the open field (still barefooted, although it hurt a lot more now than it did at first!) and drove down Kirby to the mall to turn around. When I started driving back toward the neighborhood, there was Bailey standing near the road. So I sped down there, jumped the curb with the Murano (sorry Amanda, but I didn't want to leave it in the middle of the road again) and made another effort to lure Bailey into the back of the car--to no avail.

Bailey took off down the side of Kirby going toward the mall. But instead of staying in the grass, she zig-zagged her way back and forth across Kirby causing numerous cars to slam on the breaks to avoid hitting her. I really wish one of them had hit her because it would have cut this journey in half!

So, we chased her down Kirby where she crossed over to the right and took a brief dip in the pond. While she was enjoying her swim, the neighbor and I were parking at Goodyear so we could get out and chase her on foot. We nearly had her at Goodyear, but she took off around the parking lot going behind the mall. As I was going back to get the car, she started coming back toward us only to veer off to the right and start heading toward Dillards. We quickly got back in the car and continued our pursuit.

This is where it got a little scary. As she rounded the corner near Dillards, she was trotting behind the landscape bushes headed toward the front entrance of Dillards. And of course, like most big retail shops, Dillards has automatic doors. And it being a Saturday, numerous people were entering and exiting leaving the doors open for the most part. I decided then and there that if she ran inside Dillards (dripping wet since she recently went swimming in the pond) that I would take advantage of the fact that she had no collar or tags on and just leave. No one would ever know she belonged to me!

Thankfully she did not go into Dillards. I think she may be more of a Bass Pro Shops/Academy girl. But she did continue on her way. The neighbor and I were still following her in the car yelling at every person along the way to grab her if they got the chance. Finally we came to a back alley were the dumpsters are kept for the mall. Someone had left the gate open and we saw this as our chance to corner her. Unfortunately they had left the gate open on the other side which had the effect of funneling her into the mall! At least it's an outdoor mall so she was just walking alongside the people on the sidewalks.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention--as she was trotting down the corridor between the dumpsters and the mall, there was a guy standing near the restrooms. I called out to him to grab her if she came near. He looked at me, then down at Bailey who was standing right next to him sniffing him, then looked back at me as Bailey left. It was all I could do to not punch him in the gut when I walked past, still in pursuit of Bailey, and still barefooted.

We rounded the corner to the left where she was walking down the sidewalk in front of Barnes & Noble. There were some people sitting at a table outside and I called out to them to grab her if she came near and not let go of her. The guy reached over to pet her and grabbed her. I almost kissed him when I caught up.

So, I thanked him profusely, scooped Bailey up in my arms (40 pounds of wet dog) and walked back out to the car. I'm sure I looked perfectly normal walking barefooted with a wet dog in my arms through the mall. No embarrassment there at all. I put/threw Bailey into the back of the car and headed home. I marked this spot on the map with a volcano which is a pretty close indication of my blood pressure level at this point.

When we got home, I put Bailey in her crate, quickly took another shower and headed to the birthday party which we were now approximately 1 hour late for. The next day I found 7 or 8 splinters in the bottoms of my feet from the run through the field.

After all this, I can't say there wasn't anything good about it. Any sadness remaining in me about having to give Bailey up is now completely gone!