Checking It Twice

Today as I was having lunch outside at a restaurant, I looked down to see if my dog was properly fastened to the leg of the table. 

I mean, after I had taken my seat, I remembered having locked the dog up. But I did it so quickly, and sometimes when we do things without thinking, we don’t do them properly. 

Specifically, I wanted to see if the bolt snap at the end of the leash was properly fastened to one of the leash’s D-rings. 

My thought was that perhaps I hadn’t fastened the bolt snap right, which would have meant that the dog would have actually been free. 

I have to admit, always having to make sure that the dog's leash is on properly can be annoying. But it's important always to check. I know, because I can still remember a close call from a few years ago. 

Filou and I were on our way to her last walk of the day, and we were walking down the stairs of my old apartment building. Because my old apartment building was directly in front of a very dangerous street, I always made sure that Filou was properly leashed up before we'd step out the door. However, on this occasion, I made a mistake. 

Instead of fastening the leash's bolt snap to the dog collar's D-ring, I attached the bolt snap to the malleable circular keychain that was on the D-ring. That keychain, mind you, had a purpose--it bore Filou's identification tags--but it was flimsy as hell. 

Anyway, as I opened the door and Filou charged toward the street--which was something she always did--I felt a sickening feeling. Instead of feeling resistance on the leash, I felt no resistance at all. The force of Filou pulling had broken the keychain and Filou was now in the street. 

Luckily--and I still thank God about this to this day--there weren’t any cars around. It was about 10:30 p.m. on a Sunday, and by the grace of God the street was empty. 

With Filou now running around in the middle of the four-lane road,  I yelled at her, "Filou, get over here, now!" Thankfully, she listened, but I had been given the shock of my life, because that street was that dangerous. 

Anyway, back at the restaurant today, it turned out that I had locked Filou up properly. I saw that I had indeed fastened the bolt snap to one of the leash's three D-rings. Filou was safe: she wouldn't be able to just run off and wind up God knows where. But you gotta check. You gotta always check.