RUN WILLY RUN!

I received this story from our New York contacts. Anna has Willie Wonton and Suzie -- we're done blogs on them before. She sent me a story and it was so funny-- now that we know Willie is safe. Pekes CAN BE escape artists, and Willie has proved to be one of them! Here's the story.
This morning (at my mom's house in NJ), after several wet, dreary days, Tom decided to take Willy Wonton and Butters out for a nice long walk. They'd already been out in the yard early this am, so this was to be a nice "stroll" for the three guys. Last nite, I washed everyone's wet harnesses, so as Tom had already gotten his shoes and jacket on, I was putting on Butters' harness and Tom was getting Willy set. Willy Wonton decided he didn't feel like waiting and squeezed past the storm door and shot down the drive. We live on a quiet side street and Willy has done this little stunt a few times before. He usually ends up three houses down, staring into the storm drain which is a source of complete fascination for him.

Today, Willy Wonton was on another mission and decided he wanted to run a marathon. He passed the storm drain and kept going, turned left into the next cul-de-sac, then he ran full throttle through several back yards. Willy's dad calls him "Mr. Perfect" but for some reason the words "STOP" "HEY WILLY" and "COME HERE" didn't even register -- he was no Mr. Perfect!! He then crossed a main road, fortunately all the cars coming to a halt, seeing a golden Pekingese running followed by a man huffing and puffing. He kept going into an entirely different development. Go Willy go!

By this time, I had realized this was more than his usual little trot a few houses down - this was a bit scary! I quickly got Butters on his leash and off we went running after them. I should fill everyone in that one of the reasons that Tom took the dogs for a walk, was that I was not dressed yet. Unfortunately, I had no choice but to run out wearing a red/green plaid ill-fitting old robe I have been hibernating in for two days, along with a pair of hot-pink crocs on my feet. That's it -- I was quite an appalling sight!

Butters (pictured above) was not in the mood for a snappy walk, so I had to keep pulling him along, trying to convey to Sweet Butters that "Willy might be lost!" Butters wanted to sniff each tree on the street, so I had to pick up my big boy (trying to keep my robe somewhat closed) and we ran back to our house and we both jumped in the car (for once I was not mad at Tom for leaving the keys in the ignition!) Off we went!

I drove all around our neighborhood and beyond, looking for a small running Peke and a man running after him. I disobeyed all sorts of rules of the road about turning, stopping,yielding, etc, pretty confident that anyone who would stop me would just have to take one look at my appearance (and footwear!) and understand that this was an EMERGENCY!

Just as a I gave up hope, I spotted Tom walking along, leading a small Peke , who was tied to the end of his scarf (yes his woolen scarf!), as Tom had not even been able to grab a leash when Willy took off. I immediately pulled over and ran out (yes, still in my robe and pink crocs) to embrace my boys who were safe! Unfortunately, our reunion took place right at a long light on the main road, so a dozen carloads of passerby were able to witness the morning spectacle of an exhausted man, leading a Peke along on his scarf, being embraced by a woman in a frightening "robe". Butters of course was gleeful in the back seat and was jumping up and down, so happy to see Willy and his dad! All in all, Willy had easily covered a mile or more of ground.

Suzy Q, being the good girl she is, slept throughout this entire episode and nestled deeper into her bed when we all returned home!
Fortunately, everyone was safe and this is a good lesson for us to never, ever allow Willy near the door unless both his harness AND leash are on! It is also a lesson for me, that you can only hide the fact that you being lazy, and not getting dressed for SO LONG! Eventually, we all get caught! Haha! I hope that everyone has BETTER adventures than the McGonigles!

Love, Anna, Tom, Butters, Suzy Q and Marathon Peke himself -- Willy Wonton

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Anna said we would be horrified by a picture of her in her robe and pink crocs so I searched through my pictures to find good pictures of her, Tom and Willy and Suzie. Butters is the Peke they adopted from us this year after falling in love with him at the picnic. (His name was Scotty then.) Thanks Anna for this great story!! Pekes ARE runners! We just didn't know how good Willy was!