I was walking Colm, my enormous Labrador, down our regular, meandering, country path when it all happened. The rabbit burst out of the bushes headed west in a hurry. Colm shot to the end of the lead ripping it like it was paper.
I yelled at the the hard-headed dog to come back, but he was in hot pursuit. Through the chest high weeds he raced with me following and calling out for his return.
Then, just as I emerged from the weeds, I saw Colm stopped as he looked down the road like a deer in the headlights of the approaching van. I leaped to the pavement, pushed the dog with all my strength, and the pair of us rolled into the ditch grateful to be alive as the van passed us by. More obedience classes would be ordered in the morning.