I used to have this rascal of a dog named Clarence. He was a tan Shar-Pei with lots of wrinkles. For this blog I’m going to tell a story involving Clarence. He was my favorite dog.
A little sidestory, Clarence loved going on walks and car drives. He loved going out as much as he possibly could, but it wasn’t enough so he started escaping. During this time period, we couldn’t figure out how Clarence was escaping all the time. He would escape about twice a week. Finally, I took him on a leash in the backyard and walked him across the fence and he weaseled his way through some broken boards. After Clarence had walked through the fence I tried getting him to come back through it but he wouldn’t budge. I ended up tying the leash to the fence, walking all the way around the house, untying the leash, and then walking back around the house with Clarence. He was such a rascal. After I put Clarence back inside, I took some spare wood we had, some nails, and a hammer, and fixed the hole in the fence. Then I took Clarence back around the fence to find any more holes and to my surprise, there were more behind our small vineyard. Even though now Clarence couldn’t escape through holes in the fence, he always tried dashing out of the front door whenever someone would open it. It was really annoying.
Now for the main story. One day I was 12 and my brother was 15. I think it was a Friday during the summer, my mom, my brother, and I were about to leave to go to the bank. As we were about to walk out the front door, my mom was on the phone with a client as she’s a realtor. I had my phone in my hand and my satchel on my body, and my brother was standing there with nothing in his hands. As Thomas, my brother, opened the door, I said to him, “Watch out for Clarence!” but I was too late. Clarence had already darted out the door and had turned right to go down the street. Thomas immediately started chasing after Clarence while I threw my phone to the ground and ripped off my bag leaving it with my phone as I ran after Thomas and Clarence. Thomas had gotten a good 15-20 feet in front of me by the time I had started running. About 5 yards later, I started to pass Thomas and I screamed back at him, “Ha! I’m faster than you!” For years Thomas would always make a big stink that he was faster than me. After I said that, Thomas yelled back at me, “That’s because I’m wearing flip flops!” and we continued running while I was getting further and further ahead of him. What he didn’t hear me respond to was, “I’m in flip flops too!” Finally about half a mile up the street, I caught Clarence because he stopped to sniff some flowers. I grabbed hold of him and waited for Thomas to walk up. When he finally caught up to me, all I heard him say was “oh” before I cut him off and told him to hold the dog. I then proceeded to go to a nearby plant which was very viney, pluck the longest vine, and use that as a leash to walk Clarence back to the house. A few seconds after I started walking Clarence back to the house with my makeshift leash, my mom pulled up in her car and we all piled in. Thomas then said to our mom, “So we were running and I got a head start, right? Well Georgia started to pass me up and he was like, “Ha! I’m faster than you” and I was like, “That’s because I’m in flip flops!” and as I finally catch up to Georgia, I see she’s” wearing flip flops too.”
Note to self (and everyone who’s reading this) even though your siblings may be older, stronger, and bigger than you, you may still be able to outrun them and shove it in their face.
Using the vine as a makeshift leash is pretty smart! I’m glad you were able to get Clarence back okay!
It was a delight to read your memory of racing your brother with flip flops and I am also glad that you got Clarence back.