I was getting cabin fever after three days of heavy rain in the Comox Valley which had kept me from running. Much of my route shares the road with vehicle traffic in the countryside so I was leery of heading out to run in the down pour with drivers distracted by the weather. But Saturday, I had to go out and do my half marathon route. By mid morning the traffic wasn't too bad. I decided to wear a tuque to help me stay warm with the cool weather and rain. Even though it was December 1st, I wore my running shorts, and after a couple of kilometers I felt fine. The river along Dove Creek Road was running high, swelled from the days of rain. Five kilometers or so into the route, as I passed a couple of hobby farms, three husky dogs joined me. I don't know who they belonged to. They seemed friendly. The three of them ran along with me for seven kilometers, and after one took off, two continued with me all the way home covering a total of fifteen kilometers. It ended up being one of my quicker 1/2 marathon training runs, as the dogs helped to keep me on pace. I got worried when they wouldn't turn back as I got closer to my home. I guess we had formed some sort of bond during the run; a pack mentality of something like that, and I was the leader of the pack. So they stayed with me until I reached my condo in downtown Courtenay. My wife, Olivia, was surprised to see me returning from my wet run accompanied by two huskies.
She gave them water, some left over cat food, and chunks of chicken. I called the SPCA to tell them about these dogs who had followed me on my run. They both didn't have collars, or ID tattoos inside their ears. We let the dogs inside our tiny condo, dried the rain off them, and made arrangements to bring them to the SPCA. I had a quick shower and grabbed some lunch before taking the dogs there in the van. I later posted a photo of them on Facebook and a friend of a friend seems to know who they belong to, so hopefully they'll soon be reunited with their masters.
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