Rozzie and Scooter

One of the unexpected delights of my daughter Bridget’s “home stay” for the holidays, is the relationship that has developed between our dog, Rozzie, a large golden retriever/border collie mix, and Bridget’s new dog, a small dog of undetermined breeds that was rescued from the Navajo reservation. They have become real pals, chasing one another, fighting over toys and even snoozing together.

The relationship was epitomized on a recent walk in Rock Creek Park with the two of them.

Contrary to the park rules, I always let Rozzie off the leash on our walks. She bounds into the woods, occasionally disappearing for a few minutes and then reappears a little further up the path. Twice, she didn’t come back, which was pretty awful for a while as we searched the woods for her. Both times, she found her way back to our house on her own.

I’m a little more anxious letting Scooter off leash as he’s only about 8 months old. And, of course, ,he’s not my dog. But he’s so small, he has trouble keeping up with Rozzie and generally watches her from the path. And he mostly stays close, either to Rozzie or me. So, I take the chance.

On this particular walk, I was listening to the Obama book (which, by the way, is the best political autobiography I’ve ever read, by far). It was getting to the grand finale, the bin Laden raid. As we came to the end of the trail leading to the somewhat paved Bingham Road, I was totally absorbed.

After walking about 30 yards on Bingham, I noticed that the dogs were not in front of me, where they usually frolicked. I stopped and looked behind me and there was Rozzie, standing still in the middle of the road, peering at the exit from the woods from which we had just come. He was standing alone. No Scooter. Rozzie didn’t budge, looking at me, then looking into the woods repeatedly. I felt concern rising over the whereabouts of Scooter and started yelling “Scooter! Come!” I ran back toward Rozzie and she still didn’t move, looking at me, then the trail.

After an uncomfortable couple of minutes, Scooter popped out of the woods. And only then did Rozzie move, running along side Scooter as they took their place in front me on the walk.

I’m usually reluctant to ascribe human emotions, motivations and behaviors to dogs. After all, they are dogs. But, in this instance, I really believe that Rozzie was looking out for Scooter. She stood there waiting for me to realize that Scooter had gone rogue. And it worked.

Rozzie is the perfect dog.

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