dogs learnt their new names in a day,

dogs learnt their new names in a day, and would sit on command shortly thereafter. They were two of the most joyful, entertaining, and affectionate puppies I’ve known. We were now back to four dogs.

To my distress, the puppies learnt from the old dogs to chase vehicles. Although they would come when called at almost any other time, the joy of the chase was more than they could resist. Worse, still, they were indiscriminate, and would pursue any vehicle, sometimes inciting the old dogs into chasing a car they wouldn’t have bothered with, before.

I hated to do it, but it was clear that the puppies would have to be restrained, except when I could devote my full attention to them. Nonetheless, they had at least two long mns each day, and what fun they had together: chasing each other in circles, sliding and somersaulting in the damp grass. But the sound of a ,. vehicle in the road remained a great worry, although we might be well back on the land, as it was often impossible to call the dogs back until the chase had ended. I was particularly concerned about that flat-bed truck.

Earlier this month the woman in the flat-bed truck hit and killed Jolly, the puppy my six-year-old daughter had chosen for her own. Another three minutes and we’d have been well back into the farm, far from the road. We had released the dogs and were headed out, when we heard the truck coming. Jolly died of suffocation as blood from a head wound filled his lungs. There was no saving him

I had tried to comfort him, but, terrified and hurt as he was, his defensive instincts kicked in, and he bit me through the hand. I carried him from the road, laid him in the grass, and ran for the telephone. Saturday evening. No vets at their offices. A problem with our vet’s emergency line. “Dr. Burchard of Culpeper is on his w ay to his office,” we were told when his emergency operator called back. But, by then, it was all over.

The woman had stopped when she saw my daughter and me run into the road. All I can remember her saving was that she thought we had only two dogs, and had not known about the others. I said that l had been worried for some time about her excessive speed, and had hoped to be able to speak to her about it before it was too late. The man'had gotten out, too, but said nothing that I could hear. They drove off, and left us in the road.

The dispatcher, although sympathetic, said she could not send a deputy since the woman had stopped and thereby fulfilled her legal obligation. She could send the dog warden, she said. What I wanted was a police officer with the ability and authority to track down the driver of the flatbed truck and to advise her to drive more slowly and carefully when in proximity of private entrances where there are known to be dogs, and, more importantly, of course, children.

The fact that this woman had killed my daughter’s puppy is, apparently, of no consequence in the eyes of the law. Too bad she hadn’t scratched the paint of my car while she was about it! She might have lost her license.

JOHN CADWALADER, JR.

Woodville