I decided to take the kids out to Baytown Wharf yesterday to do some cache maintenance on a cache I have adopted from a fellow cacher who has moved.
I have a cache near Winn Dixie and it has had a travel bug in it for quite some time so I decided to move the TB to the JoLee Island cache in hopes that someone will grab it and move it along.
So the kids and I loaded up and headed for the WD cache to get the TB.
We pull up and standing over by one of the shop windows was a woman with a huge black and white spotted Great Dane.
We all commented on how big the dog was and then the Island Girl and her friend Z headed down the hill to grab the TB from the cache.
The Oldest Island Boy wanted to go so he started down the hill behind them.
I was standing at the top of the hill watching them when all of a sudden I felt this gust of wind go by.
It was the Great Dane and she was heading down the hill at full speed towards the kids.
Before I could yell a warning the Oldest heard something and turned around.
The dog was running full out down the hill toward him.
I wish I had had a video camera because he saw the dog and literally jumped 2 feet high and the look on his face was priceless. It was a mixture of fear and amazement all wrapped into one.
The dog wasn’t interested in him and ran right past him to the tree where the other kids were.
The Oldest literally flew back up the hill to where I was standing and he kept saying "Mom! Mom!"
His eyes were as big as dinner plates. The dog must not have found the big kids interesting because she came running back up the hill towards us and by now the Oldest is really jumping up and down and is practically screaming "MOM!!!!"
Just then the dog’s owner comes running over yelling the dog’s name (which is Gertrude – after Hamlet’s mother, of course)
The woman has a little remote in her hand and I can see a box on the dog’s collar and the woman is pushing the button on the remote but nothing’s happening.
Gertrude reaches the top of the hill and stops next to where we are standing with her owner. The woman was very apologetic about the dog and kept saying I don’t think her collar is working.
No, I don’t think it is either.
Now that the dog is standing still the Oldest walks over and starts to pet her. You could tell immediately that this dog is a big baby and she practically cooed when he started to pet her.
The woman tells me that Gertrude loves kids and when she saw mine she took off after them wanting to play. She seemed very sorry that Gertrude scared the Oldest and she seemed perplexed about why Gertrude’s collar wasn’t working.
Must be time to change the batteries.
The big kids came back up the hill and the kids petted Gertrude for a few more minutes before we got back in the car and were off to Sandestin.
Needless to say the Oldest was pretty pumped up. He said "Mom that dog looked so big running down the hill I thought it was a horse!"
I asked him what he was thinking when he heard the dog coming and turned around because the look on his face was so funny.
He said “All I thought was AAAGGGHHH!!!”
We laughed the rest of the way to Sandestin and as soon as we met up with the Island King the Oldest had to tell him the story of the dog.
He said "That was the biggest, fastest dog I’ve ever seen!"
I realized after it was over that if that had been a mean dog I wouldn’t have been prepared and I’m not sure what I would have done.
But then I also realized that if it had been a big mean looking dog standing over there I would have been watching the dog and we may not even have gotten out of the car until the dog and owner were gone.
Luckily, it was the Lady Gertrude that we encountered and the whole thing was very funny.Labels: Done