Today’s leadership tip: Always leave the office in plenty of time to get un-lost, fix a flat tire or rescue a dog in the middle of the road. I’ve never had a flat tire en route to a meeting, but I did once get so engaged in a conversation with a co-worker that we didn’t realize we’d missed the exit to our leadership class in Dearborn until we saw a sign to Toledo, Ohio. Ever since walking in quite late to that leadership class, I always leave early for meetings. On Wednesday it’s good I did, because my co-worker Jaclyn and I rescued a dog in the middle of the road.
The dog appeared in the road near a big, white farm house. Jaclyn stopped, pulled over, and I got out, hoping for the best. I patted my knee, talked nicely to the dog, and he came trotting over. I grabbed him by the collar, and while Jaclyn opened the door, I whispered, “Please don’t bit me,” and lifted him up and put him in the car. We did a U-turn, went up the driveway, knocked on the door of the big white farm house, then rang the doorbell. Nobody answered. We went down the road to the next house, where a nice lady running a day-care said that the dog did belong to the people in the big white house and that the dog was often found in the road and often escaped from its line outside. The lady said the nearest animal shelter was in Hastings, 10 miles away. We were minutes away from our first meeting site at Nashville City Hall, so Jaclyn drove us there and went inside to let the people know that we might be a few minutes late. Meanwhile, I checked out the dog and determined that he was otherwise well cared for–his nails were neatly trimmed, he was well fed, and his owners had spent some money getting his teeth removed. He did, however, need a bath, because my hands were turning brown while petting him. And I was getting dog hair all over me.
Ten minutes, Jacylyn returned to tell me we were to follow the Nashville Police Chief back down the road to the owner’s house. Sensing our time with the dog was coming to an end, I made sure we had a cute photo of Jaclyn with our little pal.
Back at the big white farm house, the officer took the dog from the car and tied him back up outside. Before we left, I told the officer that the dog had been panting and seemed to need water, so the officer took some water to the dog. He also said he was going to talk to the owners about the fact that the dog did not have cover from the elements. And he was going to speak to him about the dog getting off it’s line again and again.
So things didn’t quite turn out how I’d hoped. In fact, for one tiny moment I had imagined that we’d drop the dog off at the shelter, he’d get adopted to a family that recognized him as a member of the family. Ya know, let him come inside, get snuggled and pampered?
Jaclyn, meanwhile, had emailed a photo of the dog to her husband; he was kind of hoping Jaclyn would bring the dog home.
But rescuing dogs and leadership are both about taking chances, and sometimes things don’t always work out the way we planned.
Oh, but did I mention we were on time for our meeting after all? With minutes to spare! I got to see the Nashville drinking water filtration site.
And I got to see the Nashville wastewater treatment lagoon.
And I got to see the Hasting wastewater treatment plant.
Three sites, one dog, and a lesson in leadership. All in a good day’s work.