The final e-mail of last night and the first e-mail of this morning — well, the first e-mail not trying to sell us bargain, off-brand Viagra or somedamnthing — in our collective in-box concerned a dog named Smokey, who escaped Saturday from his home in the 6900 block of Ellsworth Avenue after a lawn-service worker failed to close a gate.

Smokey is 14 years old and has difficulty seeing and hearing.

After taking off on a walking tour of the neighborhood, Smokey ended up in Forest Hills, where we was picked up Sunday and taken to the city's animal shelter.

His human was notified by city shelter people because he is a conscientious pet-dad and affixed proper ID information to Smokey's collar, and good on him. Happy ending.

The point of all this, though, is the distance Smokey traveled in a relatively brief time. Assuming the semi-most direct route, to the nearest point of Forest Hills, Smokey walked nearly 2½ miles. Not bad for an aging, semi-blind, hard-of-hearing dog.

So, dog-people, our little canine friends can cover a fairly large territory within a 24-hour period, so if they do wander off, don't concentrate the "Lost Pet" signs within just a three-block radius.

Better yet, keep them secure at home, and we don't mean chained to a tree.

1 response to this post