This Friday evening at around 6pm my boyfriend and i were on the hunt for some supper time delights. As we were walking up Quinpool Rd, we noticed two dogs running towards us. One was a larger black lab mix, and the other was a smaller brown/white mutt. We could see that the black dog had a rope, around 10 feet long, attached to its collar, so it was pretty obvious to us that they had gotten loose.

As we were approaching the Canadian Tire, we saw that the dogs had stopped just in front of the store. As a self-proclaimed dog lover, i had too much heart to just walk away, so we took the time to tie the rope up to the stair railing, and to the other smaller dog. My boyfriend went in the store in hopes of finding the owner. There were no tags on the dogs, and the knot that was attached to the black dog was hardly tied, so i didn't want to undo it completely, fearing the dog would run away.

After keeping the dogs company for a few minutes, and talking to some other concerned passerbys, something horrible happened...the black dog saw another dog across the street, and began barking. Before i knew it, he began to run with the smaller dog following him. All i could do was hold the rope and hope it would hold. Of course it didnt. The rope was a joke, too thick to even hold a knot.

The dogs bolted into Quinpool Rd during one of the busiest times of the day. I was mortified. They both were literally inches from death or being seriously injured, and all i could do was stand there and watch. They made it to the other side safely, but it wasn't over. Nope. They then decided they had to cross back to get to their no-where-to-be-seen owner.

They both escaped injury yet again. I was there, meeting them on the other side, grabbing them by the collar and back to that good for nothing rope. Two guys were walking by, had saw what had happened, and im sure could tell that i was visibly upset. They were nice enough to help me rope the dogs up. Just as we were doing that, the owner came out of the store. We told them how her dogs had almost been killed and that we had found them running up quinpool, and we were lucky to find her. ...

And this is where i got really upset....not only had my boyfriend and i taken time out of our lives to make sure a strangers dogs were ok, AND to find the owner, AND deal with the horrible gasps and stares of judgment from those who thought i was the neglectful owner, but the owner acted as if it was ok. She was smiling. Talking in her puppy voice to them saying "oh what did you guys do?!" joyously, as if the entire situation was a joke. Not only that, we didn't even get a thank you.

I didn't want to hear about how the rope "normally holds". I wanted to hear a solution, perhaps about how you were going to get some leashes immediately, so that something like that never happens again. You put your own dogs and the lives of others in danger by not restraining them properly.

If i witnessed either of those beautiful, kind dogs get hurt I cannot even begin to tell you how awful i would have felt. At that brief moment in time, they were my responsibility, and i'm sure you would have found a way to blame my boyfriend and i instead of finding the guilt in yourself. My boyfriend and i went on to have a delicious meal, but the state of mind left after such a preventable incident was overwhelming.

Please, please get your dogs leashes! Their lives are short enough as is, do you want to risk cutting it down even furthur?

If you cannot afford two leashes, then i will personally front the money for them. Also, if you are not going to get leashes, at least get tags for their collars, so the next people who find them roaming will be able to contact you and not take them directly to the SPCA [which we thought about doing].

---lucky we were there