Oh my gosh I have a story in soliditarity

We have an escapee husky-shepherd mix ourselves and she recently lost just enough weight to jump over our 5’ fence cleanly. Wonderful. We haven’t had time to alter the fence so if we take our eyes off her she bounces like tigger and is off to the wind. Someone usually stands on the porch watching and she won’t attempt the maneuver. But we forget sometimes and wander inside when she’s taking her time doing her business.

Anyway my son, aged 12, is in the house this day trying on a pair of my big wedge platform cosplay boots for kicks and giggles. Think KISS 4” boots. My son has always been a man of few clothes, always shirtless and his sensory avoidant behavior makes him prefer tight fitting clothes so he was wearing gray leggings.

I wander inside for a sec to see what he’s doing and behind me he sees through the glass door that the dog clears our fence and goes down our neighborhood street. He thinks, “I gotta go get her!” Without a thought he takes off past me running down the stairs, down the road, in these big ass boots, shirtless and in leggings like he’s goddamn David Bowie but make it Usain Bolt. I didn’t have shoes on so it took me a minute to scramble on mine and hop in the car to take after them.

I roll up (in my Prius) and my son comes out of the side gate into the road holding the dog by the collar and looking like Siegfried and Roy, cause our dog is all white and 85 lb and as tall as my son’s hip even with these boots on. I cringe and yell out the window, “get in the car already!”

And as I’m doing this I missed that there’s this smug bearded recumbent bike dude coming down the other side of the road and he…. Stops and motions for my son and the dog to cross the road. Looks at me with eye contact as he rides by after.

My son as he gets in the car: “mom these boots made me run so fast!!” …I bet, kiddo.