Rats and Dogs.... well my dog

Tuesday is my long run....well has been for the last 3 weeks and I am so happy to have a running partner! I meet J at 6:30 which means I have to be up by 5:45 to get some coffee, calories and take the pups for a quick run/poop and then swing back home to drop them off and feed them. I have this down on how it goes and all works well....unitl there is a rat, yes a rat in the sidewalk this morning. Just sitting there and as we approach of course the rat will run away, well this rat was sleeping, drugged or stupid because it sat there and Zen lunged and next thing I know the rat is in his mouth and the tail is whipping about. Now this is not fun to deal with anytime, let alone when I have, uh 10 minutes. So, thanks for the collars they wear, I can send him a signal with a button to drop the rat, no response, so I increase the frequency (yes this is a shock collar) and he does drop the rat and off we go. Then I start to think I cannot leave the dead rat on the sidewalk for some poor person to step on or some other dog to scoop up. And what if the rat is suffering a slow death. So we turn around and I put the dogs in a stay and I approach the rat and figure I will put it in my poop bag and dispose of it. It is not moving, good sign and as I lean down, you know it, it jumps up and starts running. Now the dogs are shaking in anticipation and cannot hold their stay any longer and are now lunging for the rat. It was me holding them off so the rat, which I cannot stand rats, can flee to safety. No time to really ponder or deal with this as I am late. We run home, feed the dog and I am promptly on the corner to meet J for our run,

I was so freaked out I put the entire episode out of my head until a few minutes ago....We had a great run, well good run, as my legs are tired and not the kind of tired that after a mile or 2 warm up, the fatigue is there. But thanks to the company and the good conversation it was over before I knew it. Nothing like running home, diving in the pool, eating 2 PB/honey sandwiches, massive glass of mango nectar, quick change and off to Starbucks to meet a potential business associate. Hard to answer when someones says, "how was your morning..." I simply said fine,