« November 2007 | Main | January 2008 »
December 31, 2007
come to me
I don't know how they know where to me find me, but they know.
One evening about three weeks ago, Grumpy was over at his parent's house a block away, watching football.
I was home watching a movie and working on my Christmas cards. Around 10pm Grumpy walks in the front door and announces that he has a problem. I walked from the kitchen around the corner to the living room to see Grumpy standing in the entryway holding a little dog in his arms.
Wha?
He tells me that as he is walking home this little dog runs out into the street and almost gets hit by a car. He figured that the dog had escaped somehow so he grabbed him and brought him home so we could keep him safe until we located his owner. We popped him in our kennel to keep him away from our dogs and went to bed.
The next morning I posted entries on every single MISSING PET site I could find with his description and identifying information.
Then I really took the time to give him a good once over and this is when things started going downhill.
First thing, he had no tags, but this didn't freak me out because sometimes they slip out of their collars. Then I realized he wasn't neutered. GAH! The dog had nails so long I don't know how he walked. He was very, very thin, maybe 9 pounds for a dog I suspect to be some kind of mix of Australian, Silky, and Yorkshire Terrier. His hair was so shaggy around his face he couldn't see. He had several ticks. His fur was grubby and gross. His eyes were all crusty and he had so much hair in his ears I'm surprised he could hear.
All of these things made me think he's a stray. But at the same time he got along fine with our dogs and he loved the kids. He listened well and didn't jump on the furniture. He was potty trained too. All this made me think that he belonged to someone but had somehow gotten lost and been on his own for awhile. I took him to the vet and had him checked out. Of course he had no microchip.
For a few days things looked really promising. I got almost a dozen calls and emails from people missing their dog. I even got an email from a woman in Idaho who thought it might be her dog. It made me sad to hear all these poor people who were missing their babies. They were so hopeful. One poor girl was a dog walker who had lost a client's pet. Not once did this little dog match up with any of the descriptions. We decided to give it two weeks to find his owner. I even spent several nights searching through dozens and dozens of missing pet sites going back almost a year.
So, guess what? He's still here. And now, I refuse to take him to the pound. I know he would get adopted quickly but he has already bonded with our dogs, kids and even with us. I don't think he needs anymore upheaval. We have named him Radar because he has huge bat ears and he turns his head from side to side when you talk to him.
For anyone who is keeping count, this means we now have 5 dogs who all fall in the under 10 pound category. I am turning into Cesar Milan.
Posted by bugg at 03:05 PM | Comments (33)