Pomeraniac!

Joe and I arrived at Robinswood Park nice and early one morning this week. We didn't expect to see anyone hanging around the parking lot since we are usually the first people there each day. The woman holding the empty collar and leash immediately caught my attention, and I wondered why she was holding a collar without a dog attached (it was early in the morning and I was not putting two and two together very quickly). At the same time I was observing this woman, Joe was commenting on "Who in the world lets their dog run loose near such busy streets!" Then I realized he was watching the little blonde dog racing around that belonged to the sad looking woman with the empty collar standing hopelessly in the parking lot.
I got out of the car and asked if I could help her. She was quite dejected and said she had spent an hour in the off-leash area with Mickey, the blonde Pomeranian. Apparently Mickey was not ready to the leave the park and fought his way out of the collar on the way to the car a half an hour before we arrived. She said he did not respond to verbal commands like "come" so he was always a challenge to catch when he got loose. I asked if he responded well to treats or dog food, thinking we could lure him back with something tasty for the dogs Joe and I always keep in the car. She didn't think he would respond to that either. We tried coming at him from both sides to catch him but he was too quick. He seemed to be enjoying himself and making a game out of evading us. He let us get just close enough to almost touch him and then he was off like a streak of blonde lightning. Then a light bulb went off in my head, if the dog wants to stay and play at the park we should act like we are going back to the off-leash area and see if he follows. Joe got our dogs leashed up and led them to the off-leash area. Mickey did excitedly follow us to the entrance and I was able to corner him against the fence so his owner could put his collar back on. She was very appreciative, but I told her it was not a big deal I would hope someone would do the same thing for us if one of our dogs got loose and would not come back! I did recommend a harness for him since he was not trained and is just too quick to catch if he gets free of the collar.