Another Thing A Bike Is Good For: Wrangling Runaway Dogs

Replaying the timelapse vid of last night’s ride home hardly tells the tale. I’m biking up Larchmont approaching Rosewood north of Beverly Boulevard. To the sidewalk on my right I notice a young man and woman jogging and  calling out to something in front of them, and about three parked cars ahead is a dog on a dead run that looks a bit like a cross between a bassett hound and a German shepherd.

Not sure if it’s their dog or a stray, I head the mutt off at the pass by pulling onto the sidewalk in front of it, effectively blocking its route, and in response the dog reverses course and runs back toward the two but eludes capture and comes back in my direction before running into Larchmont with the young lady of the pair yelling “Tootsie!” in horror that it might get hit.

Fortunately Larchmont is clear and Tootsie uses it to swing wide around me and head east on Rosewood, as captured by my handlebar cam, like so:

tootsie-copy

I ask them if Tootsie’s theirs and they tell me yes, so I head off on Rosewood in pursuit, pulling alongside the hard-charging dawg as it reaches Gower and makes a right, heading south. I pull alongside yelling “Tootsie!” but the dog just glances at me in unbroken stride with a look like “Who are you and how the hell do you know my name!?”

Looking like it could run at that pace for days I power it up and pull ahead, angling to get on the sidewalk in front of it. Halfway down the block Tootsie sees this and stops hard, once again about-facing to return from where it came. I turn around too and see the man has made it onto Gower and I’m hoping he’ll be able to catch the dog up. Alas, Tootsie evades his grab again, and hangs another right on Rosewood, which I do as well, passing the man who’s crossed Gower as well. I pass Tootsie before we get to Beachwood and with the same blockade maneuver get the dog to do a 180 and head back to its guardian who this time — yay! — manages to reel the dog into his arms thanks me for my help as I roll past them.

“Happy to,” I say and get back on my way.

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Will

Will Campbell arrived in town via the maternity ward at Good Sam Hospital way back in OneNineSixFour and has never stopped calling Los Angeles home. Presently he lives in Silver Lake with his wife Susan, their cat Rocky, dogs Terra and Hazel, and a red-eared slider turtle named Mater. Blogging since 2001, Will's web endeavors extend back to 1995 with laonstage.com, a comprehensive theater site that was well received but ever-short on capital (or a business model). The pinnacle of his online success (which speaks volumes) arrived in 1997, when much to his surprise, a hobby site he'd built called VisuaL.A. was named "best website" in Los Angeles magazine's annual "Best of L.A." issue. He enjoys experiencing (and writing about) pretty much anything creative, explorational and/or adventurous, loves his ebike, is a better tennis player than he is horr golfer, and a lover of all creatures great and small -- emphasis on "all."