This week, I have a story about Shia, my Old English Bulldog. Shia is turning 3 this year, but was only about 1 1/2 in this story. Shia is a very active bulldog, she loves wrestling, playing fetch, running laps around the house and soccer..
Jared's dad coaches a high school soccer league. All of Jared's family loves to support Bryan (my father in law) in his games. He's coaches this soccer league to the state championship a few times and really has created a fantastic team. His family is also VERY competitive. This particular game was a really big game and was one of determiners to see if we'd make it to the state championship. A few days before the game they announced it would be played in a park. I made immediate plans to leave work early so I could go home and get Shia before the game and then let her enjoy being in the park during the game. She loves being outside, getting some sunshine and eating grass, so I knew she would really appreciate me going home to get her first.
Going home first added about 30 minutes to the commute to the park, but when we finally got there and met up with Jared I was feeling good. I had my pup, it was a beautiful Friday afternoon and we were going to kick some soccer tooshies.
As I said before this game was one of the final games of the season and was determining if our team would make it to the state championship - BIG GAME! The soccer match was incredibly intense through the entire game. Both teams were playing well and we were butting heads all the way through the first half. All of Jared's family was there to support the team and my father in law. When I say the WHOLE family I mean it! All the cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and even second cousins. Jared and I have set up camp in the DeMann cheering section. Were smack in the middle of the whole family. We have camp chairs set up and Shia is on her leash, because we are responsible pet owners. The leash is attached to Jared's chair - which he was SITTING in. We were down to the final 3 minutes of the game and the ball came darting by us while in play. Shia spotted the ball and in the blink of an eye she was gone. Her leash did not come unhooked, instead it just completely snapped. Have I mentioned Shia is 70 pounds of pure muscle? She pulled with such force that her leash simply broke! You would have thought I was using a piece of thread as a leash!
{via}I didn't know what to do because it all happened so fast. All I could see was a big white blur that had decided she was a player. When my eyes focused I saw Shia chasing the ball around as fast as the soccer players. She was having the time of her life. While the soccer players were more confused than anything, the fans were mad and the ref was not entertained. My face was bright red and I was tugging on Jared's sleeve as f I were a baby asking for a pacifier. I whispered in Jared's ear very franticly, "What do we do?"... At this point the ref was making eye contact with us. I slumped so far down into my chair and let Jared make the walk of shame out to the middle of the field to grab Shia. She thought she was having the best play date ever and was confused why we were interrupting her fun. As Jared walked off the field with the broken leash in hand Shia had her tail wagging, mouth wide open, and was the happiest bulldog ever. The ref glared and told us to get a stronger leash. We both nodded in shame and agreed.
We both sat quietly with a death grip on Shia's collar for the rest of the game. Every time the ball passed we'd both tighten our grip until our knuckles were white. We did end up winning the game and as people left the field EVERY single person that passed us made an effort to come let us know that they saw Shia on the field, most were making small talk and it just made Jared and I feel more ashamed. Except one little girl came up and was really pleased with Shia's performance. I liked that little girl.
We were so embarrassed that we considered putting a fake mustache or a tutu on Shia as a disguise so that we'd stop getting recognized for having that incredibly naughty-bad-to-the-bone pup.
So... what's your bad to the bone story?
