38 “Pied Piper Dog” (cont.) . Song: CHERIE_I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU

At the same time that I exited the sanctuary, and let my dog jump out of his black zippered leather shoulder bag onto the soft grass of the church courtyard, dozens of children started bursting out through the front glass door of the attached church building (which is adjacent to the sanctuary with the beautiful grand piano I was playing). The children were in a single line as they came down the steps onto the courtyard, all in a hullabaloo of noise, commotion, and excitement. My dog immediately recognized his chance to take “center stage”, and checking up at me for approval, charged lightning fast straight toward the first little boy in the line. My little mini long-haired dachshund ended his valiant charge, by plugging his mug, deep into the soft grass less than an inch in front of the first child’s shoes. Had the little boy not stopped abruptly in his tracks, he would have tripped right over my dog. My dog tried to hold his ground with such fierce determination, that the child froze in his tracks in fearful hesitation to take another step, as well as stopped the entire line of children behind. They all crushed together, and craned their necks to stare straight toward the dog while he remained crouched and motionless, enjoying his temporary moment of having the upper hand as long as possible. In mere seconds however, his playful emotions showed, and he slowly wagged his long fox like tail from side to side, giving away his true intentions and, then, jumped away, and bounced right back again each way, into the same exact spot twice. Seeing that, signaled to all of those children, that the dog was only eager to play “tag the dog”, or “catch me if you can”, which immediately incited a kiddie “riot” of enormous proportions.

At first, the children were falling all over each other in their efforts at catching the lightning fast little long haired dachshund. They quickly surrounded this fun-loving dog, and all of their combined attempts at catching him still failed. When one heavier child nearly fell on top of him, I was fortunate to be able to step in quickly to stop him from hurting the dog, and cautioned them, that they could play with the dog, but to please be careful not to touch him, emphasizing that he has a bad back. One of the adult teachers nearby, thankfully, heard my announcement, and held the whole line back, reorganizing all the little ones who were already outside, and loudly re-announced my concern toward all the children in the line outside. Then I heard another adult inside loudly repeating it again, and It echoed clear down the hallway, “If anyone wants to play with the dog out in the courtyard, you can FOLLOW the dog, BUT DO NOT TOUCH the dog.”

Now every single child, indoors and outside, knew the rule in order to play with the dog in the courtyard. There was even help from some more adults. They helped keep the children all in line and orderly, even as the children poured outside by the dozens. All the children gleefully followed the little dog, staying in the growing longer line coming out of the main church since, on this particular Saturday, there now seemed to be some sort of new and organized game associated with what appeared to be their break, or recess. When my dog realized that the whole line of children was following him, and all their attention was focussed completely on him, he was ecstatic. He led on with the entire entourage following, as they marched around the entire courtyard, in a perfect circle, playing the part of the “Pied Piper DOG” perfectly.

When he looked back and saw that he was still the leader of a huge long line of children all following him, he looked so surprised, that he proudly led on, with as much enthusiasm, as the head husky of a dog sled team. All the children followed, staying focussed on the dog and, as the line progressed, it stayed perfectly intact. All the children were either running, skipping, trotting, or swaying from side to side when the line was all bulked up toe to heel as they looked ahead toward their little mascot leader and followed eagerly.

I will never forget my dog’s priceless expressions, as well as how much fun those children were having. He proudly led them completely around the entire church courtyard. It looked like my dog was so happy, that he was walking on air, just another normal day in the life of this fantastic dog.