Tattoo, the basset hound never intended to go for an evening run, but had no choice when his owners shut his leash in a car door and took off for a drive with Tattoo still outside the vehicle.  

Motorcycle officer Terrence Filbert was patrolling about 7:25 Wednesday evening when he noticed a vehicle had something dragging from it. As Filbert passed the vehicle he noticed that the dragging item was a basset hound on a leash, picking them up and putting them down just as fast as he could. Filbert gave chase and finally stopped the car on North 21st, but not before the dog had reached a speed of 20-25 mph.  

The occupants, a man and a woman jumped out. When Filbert told them they were dragging a dog, the couple became distressed and began calling out, "Tattoo, Tattoo." Tattoo, 8 months old, appeared to be uninjured but Filbert suggested they take the dog to a near by animal clinic to be checked out.  

No citation was issued.  

Do any of you relate to Tattoo? Your pace of life feels like you've had your leash attached to a car door?  

During the Christmas season, and for some of us, all year round, we feel like the poor basset hound in this article. Through circumstances beyond our control or because of our own poor time management skills we feel like we are picking them up and putting them down at a pace that is far to frantic for the short "legs" that we have available to us, to do all we need to get done. We feel like cutting ourselves free from the leash, and boundaries, that are keeping us frazzled and stressed, moving at the speed of light, too fast for anyone to possibly keep up with. We need to learn to "Slow Down."  

Basset hounds were not meant to run around the race track at 100 mph and neither are most of us meant to in this life. Maybe you are telling yourself that this article doesn't apply to you because you are one of those rare breeds who is a true Greyhound. That's fine. That's your "bent." But most of us are not Greyhounds and it does apply to us.  

For those of us who related to the example above, we need to learn to slow down and look to the true meaning and values in life, like family and friends, and spending time growing within ourselves.