Downtown Dog Rescue

Anyone in downtown Burlington on Sunday saw me racing in the city's prestigious Downtown 10K. Yes, that's right -- me... racing in an official, sanctioned event!

There are two reasons why you are unlikely to see me in events like this. For one, often dogs aren't allowed. Even if they are, there is great potential for entanglements and mishaps when you combine lots of people, a yellow dog, and a leash all in one place. Reason number two is that my human seems to think he races faster without me.

Well, I proved everyone wrong on both counts. First off, I was perfectly behaved, particularly at the start of the race. And I ran fast for pretty much the whole race -- which I ran in about 43 minutes: under a 7-minute-per-mile pace! I will note that I said "pretty much the whole race." That is because I did make one pee stop and one sniff stop at bushes. I also stopped twice to slurp water in puddles, and, on two occasions, I tugged my human strongly in the direction of squirrels.

And there was one other delay. At the intersection of North Avenue and Haswell Street, a brown puppy -- I assume a spectator -- got over-excited, and decided to join me in the race. His legs were going a mile a minute (they were about a fifth the length of mine, and he swerved right into the street and into traffic. I didn't catch his name, but I tell you what: that puppy would surely have been hit out there. Although we were competing, my human and I looked both ways, scooped up the puppy (who by this time was on his back totally freaked) and returned to the sidewalk.

Some kids walked towards us, until my human yelled for them to hurry up. (We were on the clock, you know?) He started to tell them to watch their dog more closely, but the girl said it wasn't her dog. "Well, someone should watch him!" Mark said, and turned back to the task at hand.

I am a little dismayed that someone wasn't paying closer attention to such a small puppy. But I hope all goes well and that he grows up to be a great runner... just like me.