Dog bites man? No news story. Man bites dog? Minor story. Dog falls from a moving train into the Trinity River? Bingo.
Josh, a husky-shepherd-chow mix who lives with Mike Maulsby of Fort Worth, this past weekend took a tumble from the Forrest Park Miniature Train and lived to bark about it.
Maulsby took Josh out for a weekend excursion in an effort to cheer up the little guy after the passing of Ginger, the family cat with whom Josh bonded. They boarded the train, charmed a few fellow passengers, and happily took off from the depot.
Josh, though, got a little spooked by the water below the bridge, according to Maulsby, and started backing away from the side of the train. Problem was, he over-backed and went out the other side, falling “several feet into the Trinity River below.”
Shouted attempts to the conductor to stop the train went unheard. One of the passengers suggested Maulsby jump in after Josh, but the 54-year-old thought better of it … until the adrenaline overruled logic.
Maulsby, too, abruptly departed the train and headed down to the river, where, after a frantic search, he miraculously spotted a freaked out Josh back up on the bridge.
Josh, understandably, was pretty skittish at this point and rebuffed Maulsby’s attempts to call him. Maulsby sat down, and eventually Josh joined him, laid … lay … reclined next to him.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
They walked back to the car — no more train rides, thank you very much — and Maulsby sang a little ditty during the drive home, that goes a little something like this:
You smell like a fish, you smell like a fish, you smell like a fish. You do, you do!
But you look like my dog, you look like my dog, you look like my dog. You do, you do
Now I know, now I see, it’s because you fell in the Trinity!
I spoke with Maulsby a bit ago to get a photo of Josh. Maulsby said the dog still smells like the river and, “I should give him a bath.”
Um, yes, yes you should, yes you should. That river could leave some serious residual ick.
Bruce Felps owns and operates East Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. He’s learned a valuable lesson from all this: Don’t buy a round-trip ticket when taking a train ride with your dog.
