When dogs get loose, people run after them, sometimes hysterically. We’ve all been there. We’ve all watched our dogs dart off and we suddenly had to give chase, grown people running down the block in business attire and bathrobes, while our dogs barely glance back.
Take this little dog, Sara Lee. She darted in front of a bus and took off on her merry way, just a little romp through the neighborhood. The bus cam picked her up. The bus cam picked all of this up.
But before the bus could continue, the owner swept into view. You know this gait. You’ve looked this exact way many times, running down the street after your dog, although perhaps you weren’t picked up my a bus cam.
And then: the gesture. The universal “Hey get the hell back here!” gesticulation, which has forever gone unnoticed by our dogs, but thankfully was picked up by bus cam.
She’s a persistent one.
Some time later, the bus catches up to them. The woman: dejected, lumbering, in it for the long haul, ready to march across Oregon if need be. The dog: farther ahead, keeping a nice buffer between her and her owner, enjoying herself immensely no doubt, wondering why they don’t do this more often.
The bus driver, Leanne Terhune, then stops next to the woman, who is tired, worn, beaten; who just wants to go home and watch NCIS; who doesn’t need a ride, thanks, can’t you see I’m trying to get my dog here?
Terhune sweeps past the lady and then has a brilliant idea. She doesn’t have many options, but she has one. I am a bus driver, she thinks. What if I stopped for the dog? What if I popped open the doors and asked the dog if she’d like to go for a ride, in this giant freaking machine full of loud noises and strangers? Hell, it couldn’t hurt.
Wait, is that …? The dog is getting on the bus? A house stops next to her and Sara Lee says, sure, I’m game, let’s do this.
First order of business: some snuggles from this nice lady.
But wait, who’s this?
Double-crossed!
The grateful owner picks up Sara Lee and marches off the bus and and at least four people, including the bus driver and those passengers, have a nice story to tell over the dinner table, about the woman who wouldn’t give up, a dog who thought she was going to Vegas, and a bus-driving hero who came up with the perfect plan — stop for the dog! — which dovetailed ever-so-neatly with her official duties.
Her superiors must love that.
Via OregonLive.com