(Right up front, I have to say that my post may very well upset those folks at PETA and other animal lovers. I can only swear up and down that I love my dog, and hope everyone realizes that, though I take full responsibility, this was an accident.)

How do you handle a crisis? In PR, a client or reporter calling at all hours of the night screaming about whatever fire of that minute is pretty standard. It’s the nature of the business, really. But not everyone really knows how they’d act until presented with a situation that tries your nerves at the least opportune time. This is especially true when the crisis is personal, increasing the possibilities that one could lose his or her head tenfold.

On Saturday, I was tested, twice, and came out with the answer of what I’d always known about myself under pressure.

With blue skies, a light breeze, and shorts-warranting weather, a Jeep ride to the beach with my Bodhi seemed perfect. I dropped the top, loaded up the puppy, filled up water bottles for the two of us, and tied him to the Jeep bar so he wouldn’t jump out. He really loves to stand towards the edge and stick his paws on the inside, right near the edge.

Well, I don’t know what happened, but I turned the corner to my neighborhood, only going about 10 miles an hour , if that, and somehow he must have slipped and fell out of the car, dangling from the car just by his collar! I was mortified and slammed on the breaks to unhook my 135-pound puppy! Luckily, he’s very big, and I hadn’t made the leash too short, so he reached the ground, and wasn’t choking, and wasn’t hurt….just a little stressed out (he gets stressed easily). Though I was extremely upset, I calmly unhooked him, apologizing to him the whole time, and got him situated in the car and chilled him out.

But all I could think was, what if he’d fallen out on the highway? I only could imagine, so to prevent any further issues, we drove back, got his car harness (which is what I should have done first off), and continued our trip.

Not more than ten minutes later, as if to retaliate for the previous incident, Bodhi left me a present on the back seat, and climbed up front with me, while we are driving on the highway at 65 miles an hour. The fact is that he’s relieved himself in all three of my cars, numerous times, so, I wasn’t all that surprised, especially since he was stressed early. But with my puppy, stress=diarrhea. And let me reiterate, he’s a big boy. Needless it was a mess and a simple trash bag wasn’t going to do the trick.

Normally, I keep paper towels, plastic bags, and a scrub brush in the truck, just for this situation, but unfortunately was SOL. All I had was the brush, some Tupperware, and a couple of towels. After pacing up and down the street, to which I’d pulled off, considering how these three tools could factor in, I finally broke down and knocked on the door of the house I’d parked in front.

Barbara, probably the nicest lady in the world, invited me, offered me her hose, let my puppy play in her back yard, and even offered me Woolite Pet Stain Remover…an added bonus that takes the smell out of things.

While addressing the issue slopped in the back of my car, grateful for the generosity I was fortunate enough to receive (what are the odds?), all I could do was laugh. My nerves were at an all-time high, after being so racked with stress, that I had nothing left, but humor.

Just with this crappy situation (yes, that’s an intentional pun), life both in our personal and business worlds offers daily challenges in which we have to decide how to react. Our choices have direct repercussions to how the rest of the situation will play out. I’ve found, both in my personal and business dealings, the best way to handle difficult, sometimes messy, situations is to take a breath, address the problem directly and immediately, try to find the humor, and take away the lesson.

My lesson from this situation? Before leaving the house with Bodhi, always cover the seats in a tarp and pack supplies.  How do you handle conflict?

(Dear PETA people…You can rest easy…the puppy is back to his normal ways of destroying my home with the same exuberance and zeal as pre-incident.)