For once, Sparky listened to me when I told him that I see a rabbit.  I let him off the leash to chase it.  He ran into the woods, and barked occasionally to let me know it was going well.  Sparky was never in any danger of catching it. 

This was an experiment because, in the past, Sparky has gotten out of the house and gone on a walkabout.  For the last few months, he’s been good about coming when called, and I’ve been testing him off the leash.  When I do yard work, he comes out on his brush anchor.  If he wanders too far away, I call him, and he comes back.  It doesn’t take him long to figure how far he can go.  Sparky likes being outside and is good about chasing the quad when I go to the next tree or wood pile.

Sparky can get oblivious when he’s huffing an interesting scent trail.  When he was chasing the rabbit, he came back when called.  We aren’t going to repeat this experiment very often, but we’ve got rabbits so Sparky may as well run them down.

I don’t know, maybe it’s because Sparky’s cousin Ozzie just passed away, but I want Sparky to live his best life.  When a storm is coming and Sparky isn’t feeling very confident, we reminisce about the time he almost caught a rabbit, and that always raises his spirits.