If you live north of Vass and west of U.S. 1 and your collie dog showed up Saturday afternoon minus his collar, allow me to explain. ...

While driving back to Southern Pines from fellow Pilot employee Mechelle Wood's wedding near Cameron, my wife, Brenda, and I noticed a magnificent collie standing on the right shoulder of U.S. 1, looking confused and lost. I couldn't put him (I assume it was a him) out of my mind. So at the next interchange, I turned around and went back.

By the time we got back to where he was, he was running along in the median, sometimes veering off and running out into traffic. Brakes were screeching and horns blaring. I pulled over onto the northbound shoulder and, leaving Brenda in the car, made my way across to the median and finally managed to persuade the agitated dog to come to me, whereupon I latched on to his collar. But, deciding I was not to be trusted, he began backing away and his collar came off in my hand. Next thing I knew, he had headed back across the traffic again, where I followed him onto the southbound shoulder, signaling for my wife to go on up to the next interchange and head back south again to where we were.

To make a long story short, I followed him for several hundred yards north on the grassy shoulder, calling him with no success and trying to keep him from going back out onto the pavement. Finally, seeming to realize where he was, he began digging desperately under a fence and finally crawled under it and headed off toward a house in the distance, where he suddenly seemed to find familiar ground.

After kicking as much dirt as I could to cover up the escape hole he had dug, I decided I had done all I could and headed back to the car. So if that was your collie and you wonder where his collar is, you'll find it hanging from the top of one of the fenceposts.

Comments

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.

Sign in to comment