Even the greatest sometimes must fall...

And Lagniappe demonstrated that today, in spades.

I had him out for a walk on the woods, and we were following a power line right-of-way, walking along a two-track road of sorts, when Lagniappe spotted a yearling deer and decided to go after it.

It was the deer's own fault, of course. It ran. Lagniappe chases anything that runs. It's what he does.

Well the young deer--a doe--ran into the brush to the left of the trail, then quickly doubled back to cross the trail, bursting out of the brush right in front of me, and I'm talking close enough that I had to step back to avoid getting hit. She bolted across the trail, leapt gracefully over a ditch filled with muddy water, and disappeared down the hill on the other side.

Meanwhile Lagniappe, already lagging somewhat behind for some reason, came exploding out of the brush just like the doe did, only he stumbled and tripped as he hit the trail. He executed an Olympic-quality face-plant into the mud of the trail--his muzzle hitting the ground like an airplane landing on collapsing nose gear--and then his momentum somersaulted him into the ditch where he impacted the water full-force and threw up a splash that would have made Shamu at Sea World jealous.

And me without my camera ready. That would have been the money shot, right there. I'd have won the hundred thousand dollar grand prize from that TV show, "America's Clumsiest Pets" and paid off my student loans. Sigh...

And to top it off, He stood up, shook the mud and water off of himself, looked at me as if to say "Uh, that didn't just happen..." and then proceeded to run off into the woods as if that deer wasn't already in the next county.

I called him back and he returned promptly, still dripping and muddy, so that I could shake my head at him and check him out to make sure that he hadn't hurt himself. Fortunately he was ok.

And to think that there was a time that this clown was the best that a police department that I won't name could find...What a goof.