…I was walking to get a sandwich, and I saw this little girl (see photo on left) crossing Palos Verdes Drive (a very busy road, for those who aren’t from around here). She had just run down the hill from an exclusive gated community and apparently decided to continue across the road.  However, she then decided to not completely cross the road, but instead to pause and wander around in the middle for a while.

Cars were of course weaving and stopping and working hard to avoid hitting her, and so I tried to call her to my side, but not knowing her name, I was doing the whole squat down and slap the knees thing, and she was just looking at and probably laughing on the inside.

Then she approached me, but suddenly swerved off to the side, and headed down Rolling Hills Road – another very busy road, where she was nearly hit by a Hummer. Then as a truck turned the corner and almost hit her I yelled, “STOP!!!!!”, and the truck, several cars and the dog all stopped, so I ran out to the middle of the road, picked her up, and brought her safely to the side.

To make things even more bizzarre, a woman in a SUV pulled over and said, “Do you need a leash?”, and handed me a spare leash she apparently had in her car.

Well, the saga of me and the dog continued for nearly two hours, including me bringing her to school and into the music room (which made lots of kids happy), and eventually I took her to a nearby vet, who scanned her and found one of those cool microchips inside. They were able to identify her and call the owner, and the story had a happy ending soon after.

Not a bad day’s work… boomwhackers with Kindergartners, show the PBS “Guitar Heroes” DVD to 4th grade, teach a few piano lessons, etc., plus snatch a dog from the jaws of death.

*Above photo was taken on my phone, waiting at the vet’s office.