Tuck ‘n Roll

What a beautiful Sunday morning. I was sitting on the porch today with Daisy, our Jack Russell mix, and Jaco our black lab/pointer mix. The sun was shining, the grass was green, the squirrels were scampering and that was part of the problem.

Daisy was lying down sunning herself on the step just below mine, which was a good thing because she’s usually on my lap.  Jaco was next to me watching the birds fly overhead. I took in a deep breath of clean air and remember thinking what a pleasant relaxing moment it was. I just love this mountain area we live in. 

Without any notice at all, Jaco bound from the top step of our porch and raced off after one of the squirrels running across the edge of our property.  Since the handle of his leash was looped around my left wrist the scenario went something like this…once he reached the length of his leash my hand whipped up in taxi hailing position. I instinctively tried to stop my forward motion with my foot on the edge of the step below but Jaco was at full speed by then and the third step was rushing toward my face. I didn’t recognize the involuntary noise that came from my lips. It was a blend of whine and squeak. I tried not to crush Daisy as I rolled across the step she was lying on. I felt my stomach lightly graze her warm body on my way down. Thankfully, Jaco stopped once he realized there was an owner down otherwise I would have been dragged through gravel and brush. It took me a few moments to assess the situation and confirm that no bones were broken but I decided it was time to go in.

My husband was still asleep when I went upstairs to tell him what happened and all I could do was laugh. I laughed so hard I couldn’t catch my breath.

“Are you going to tell me?” BJ asked.

“Yes.” Then I crawled into bed and howled with laughter again.  He started to laugh with me. It took several minutes for me to stop long enough to tell him what happened.

“Are you okay?” His serious expression made me laugh even harder.

I wish with all my heart that I had a video of my fall so I could watch it over and over. I realize now that I shouldn’t have resisted falling.  I wouldn’t have a sore foot, hand, shoulder, neck, back and knee. Ouch! 

Next time I will try to remember to tuck and roll and go with the flow but more importantly rather than continuing to take the dogs out on leash I think that electronic fence we’re saving up for is going to be installed a lot sooner than we thought.