The Dearstalkers

Preface: My mother is a 61 year old farm girl. Ursa is one of her dogs: all muscle, and diagnosed with cancer which my mother decided against treatment for. She wants her to have a quality of life that pills and radiation would not allow.
What do dogs know of "it's for your own good"

This email from her was too good not to post

The Dearstalkers
The dogs and I have returned from our run. This morning, it was a run. The crews were oiling the roads between me and the park so I took the dogs [Ursa and Mika] to the cemetery. I didn't want my shoulder jerked around so I tied the leashes together and let them run for a while. The idea was that, when they'd tired a bit, they wouldn't be pulling so hard. We'd walked to the back of the cemetery [my pedometer said 8 steps] when I saw a rabbit. I told the girls about the bunny but it was gone before they could see and decide on a chase. They saw the next one and were on the chase. I whistled and called them back to me and was within feet of grabbing the leashes when, suddenly, a doe came from behind them and all three were off. As they did a "bread and butter" trick around a permanent vase, Mika was suddenly jerked off her feet. Ursa sped on, hardly missing a step and Mika (dragged around the monument, lept back to her feet and) pounded after her. I hurried to the top of the rise, commanding their presence but they didn't even break stride.

I don't know how the chase ended. I only know that the dogs, finally, returned. Once again, I almost had hold of the leashes [Mika's broken and very short, now] when the doe shot across the field and the dogs were off again. I chased the action, yelling commands and was ignored by all. I was so mad I was cursing at them. "Damn you get back here!" As it echoed from one hill to the other, I hoped there wasn't anyone being laid to rest. At last the dogs returned. They had, apparently, been outrun again. This time, I got hold of the leashes, knotted Mika's and walked them [or did they drag me?] back to the car. The water dish was on the deck and Ursa nosed it with interest. I got the water and brought it to the deck where Ursa drank her fill and, true to her own likes, Mika would have none. When I saw the doe watching us, I dumped the water and closed the hatch. As I drove toward her, the doe loped across the road before me. Then, she stopped and looked back at us. She repeated this behavior twice more. As we left her, she seemed disappointed that she'd lost her playmates and I wondered if she exercises a lot of dogs.

The dogs have been out and fed and out again and Ursa has come to lie beside me. When she decided to nuzzle for a petting, her collar fell off. As I put it back together, I noticed that the rings on the ends of the chain were flattened. While I, holding the ring with pliers, pounded the rings into their previous circular shapes, all I could think was, "Oh, my aching neck!" Imagine the impact on those little doggie necks when they broke the leash and reshaped those steel rings! And, after that, they were able to drag me to the car.