It's not every day you see that kind of action

"Stop that dog! STOP THE DOG! Dammit! Every time!!! ..."

Now let's rewind a bit, because I've gone and jumped to the best part of the story without giving any background information. But let me preface this by saying that this is the closest I've had to a real-life scene from 24.

It was Friday afternoon and I was out running errands. I went to the Rite Aid in North Boulder to fill a prescription, and they said it would be about 15 minutes. So I decided to walk to the Wells Fargo in the same shopping strip and do a bit of banking. Between those two said stores is an empty space that used to be Albertson's, another empty space that used to be Ross, and a PetSmart - still open but possibly not for long if you get where this is going already.

So I'm walking down the sidewalk and look up to see a 70-pound lab/dalmation bolting directly at me at maybe 155 mph. No, kidding, but it was running as though it's life depended on it, which by the looks of the exasperated and angry PetSmart employees high-tailing after it, may have been the case. These girls, of course were the voice of the "Stop that dog!" exclamation - a phrase directed at me, the innocent bystander toward whom the dog ran. I did not stop the dog. I kind of put my hand out in a gesture that, far too late, said something like "Excuse me, dog? Someone would like your attention ...". It did not work, and these PetSmart people who un-exscudedly let this dog get away while they were clipping its claws or something, gave me a look like, "You could have done better than that!"

What was I supposed to do? Hunch over in prep-stance as though I could just dive 6 feet in whichever direction the dog chose to bi-pass me on? Uh-uh. I am not Misty May. Or Jack Bauer.

So I went and did my banking. When I walked back to Rite Aid there were 3 policemen and a couple of teens whose bags were being rifled through by said policemen. One of them looked not busy, so I asked him: "Did they catch that dog?" He thought I was crazy, according to the look on his face, and because he replied with "Excuse me?!"

But then out of nowhere one of the kids being searched starts laughing and says to me, "No, man, they chased it that way! SO funny!!!"

While I appreciated receiving the information I had requested, I couldn't help but wonder why the teen shoplifter in the process of being searched and arrested got such a kick out of the situation, too. But even the cop started laughing. Bizarre.

But gosh, I miss living in that area of North Boulder -aka the ghetto of Boulder. I'll have to stop by more often and see what more excitement I can find.