We gave our children, and ourselves, a dog for Christmas this last year. It has been one of the best things we have ever done. We are absolutely smitten! Our dog is a border collie mix named Kinsey; we believe the mix part is black lab, although she has more of the border collie traits. One of those traits is a love of running. And I mean Run.Ing!! This dog looks like a race dog when she runs, and could probably compete if given the chance. I quickly found out that I was too out of shape to keep up with my dog to give her a good work-out. I still take her out but it's more like she runs me rather than I run her.
Then I got the bright idea that I could put her harness on and ride the scooter while she ran beside me. This worked marvelously! See, I gave Brad a scooter for adults a few years ago so it is bigger and easier for big people to handle. So I hooked Kinsey up to her harness, latched on the leash, hooked that around my wrist and away we went.
There were a few bumps in the endeavor, like when I was riding on the street and she ran on the other side of a mailbox. I was able to jump off quickly though so neither of us got hurt.
Close to our house is a walking/biking trail that we like to go on. The first few times with me riding the scooter and Kinsey running were great! Man, we went so fast! FUN!! I'd get going fast on the scooter and Kinsey would see that she could let it loose and that she did! It got to where she was pulling me and I swear we were going 20 miles an hour. That's fast on a scooter, yo. It made me wonder if that was what dog sledding felt like. Super cool.
We went out again on a particularly cold afternoon. I thought I would do the entire 4 miles that day but it was so cold I ended up turning around sooner than I thought. Then I reconsidered and decided to keep going since Kinsey was having such a good time. At this point in the trail we were going downhill and were again going super fast. Then Kinsey saw a squirrel ("Squirrel!") or something and lickety split veered off to the right towards the woods. Unfortunately, I did not make that turn. Instead, I FLEW!! I landed a good ten feet ahead of where Kinsey stopped. I hit my side and executed the most perfect roll, thus eliminating any serious injury from the fall. I wish I had a video recording of it.
Now Kinsey was still attached to me at the wrist. When I came to a stop, I rolled over on my back and laid there trying to get my bearings again. I have no idea what happened to her during my flight, but I think she was worried about me because she was licking my face and checking to make sure I was OK. Honestly, I was pretty amazed that I didn't have any broken bones.
So I survived flying! I think I did sprain my thumb as I flew off the scooter. But that will heal. I haven't been out on the scooter again though. When I do, I'll be sure to wear my helmet!
