I had my heart broken today. I had to do something I did not want to do. I had to give a found dog back to its owner. It would not be so bad, but I know the dog would have been better with us.
Last Sunday, one of the neighborhood kids was bringing this small dog around asking if it belonged to anyone. As it was not our (we have big dogs), he went on. A while later, the dog was moving down the street with the kid trying to catch it. The kid would run, the dog would run. Even though they had both gone past, I god don on my knees and called the dog to me. He came without hesitation. I petted him for a bit then gave him back to the kid.
As the kid brought him back, I heard his aunt yelling at him to just “let the damned dog go”. Of course this doesn’t mention the fact that my neighbor across the street had lent them a collar that the dog was wearing.
Not long after that, we were getting ready to wash the car when this little dog walks up to me again. At this point, I took him in. I took him into the back yard and did a few things I needed to do (like plant a tree we had bought). He followed me around and stayed with me the whole time. He had unconditionally attached himself to me.
We put up a couple signs for ‘found dog’. The next day, I took him to our vet to see if he had a microchip in him (something they are now using the identify pets). He did not. So here was this tiny dog with no collar. I called a lady that used to care for our dogs when we were out of town who now runs a no kill animal center. She said that legally we needed to place an ad in the paper (which they do for free) but not to give any details as there are people who take small dogs and use them to train pit bulls to fight. Nice. It wasn’t until Wednesday that the ad got placed to run through tomorrow.
Meanwhile, it was obvious that this dog was starved for affection. For the most part, we kept him in a kennel that was given to us by the people that originally owned our golden retriever. It was plenty roomy. We had it in the family room where he could see us when we had hum in there.
When I would leave the room, he would bark. If I was not in his sight, he would bark. We had to keep him in the kennel because he was not housebroken, but we were trying to train him. He loved our two big dogs, and they enjoyed him. He followed our husky, Duchess, around like a little brother. They played a lot.
When we were home, we took him out of the kennel and let him sit on the couch with us. He would snuggle in and be happy. He had probably never had this much affection in his life. He would follow me wherever I went. He got treats when our dogs did. He ate what they ate. He was doing really well. The only one not fond of the situation was the cat. She could not come lay on me when this dog was on the couch. But this morning, she did. The both of them were with me on the couch at the same time. So, I knew the cat would get over it.
We had gotten a few calls from the ad and the signs, but what the people described was not him. One was very close, but the deciding point was that his ears stuck up and not down. Even when my mediumship teacher felt his energies and looked to spirit, she asked if I wasn’t sure if this was my dog because he felt like he was meant to be with me.
Finally today, we took down the signs and had decided to keep him. We went through several names and were calling him Rascal. That’s when the phone call came.
The people on the other end described this dog exactly. But listening to their story, I really did not want to give him back. At one point in time, they used to have a golden retriever and this dog’s mother. The golden had dug a hole under the fence and the mom got out. Instead of returning it home, the neighbor that found her kept her. Then after seven months the mom got free and went home.
This was the second time this dog had gotten out. The first time, he followed a couple joggers around for a while. This time, he had made his way out of the development, up a busy road for a half mile, and into our development. He’s lucky he made it alive.
The story was that they were cleaning out his cage and did not know the garage door was open. They looked through their development and did not find him. It was pure chance that they picked up the paper and saw the ad which did name the busy road.
Now, we have a friend that brings her dog over to us when she goes out of town. For our dogs it is like a visit from cousin Joey. And Joey loves visiting. But when ‘Mom’ comes back to get her, she can’t stay off of her. This dog just looked at her owners like ‘what do you want?”
They had his sister with them to show us. The little dog did not seem to care that much for her either. But he was their dog. Legally, we could not keep him. We wanted to. Our dogs wanted us to. But we could not. So, we handed kissed him goodbye and handed him over. They offered us one of the puppies that his sister would eventually have, but we didn’t feel we could deal with that. After all, our last three dogs have been rescue dogs and came to us full grown and housebroken. We haven’t raised a puppy in over 20 years.
We did tell them that if they ever decided they did not want him, to call us and we would gladly take him. I just don’t expect to hear from them.
I guess if the dog had jumped off the couch and started jumping on them like “Mommy, Daddy”, I would feel better. At least that way, I would know that he was going someplace he wanted to be. Right now, I know he would rather have stayed with us. And I do know he would have had a better life.
We love our dogs, and they know they’re loved. One even sleeps on our bed along with the cat. I suspect had the little one stayed with us, after he was housebroken and no longer needed the kennel, he would have slept on the bed as well. (Years ago, we used to say that our bed slept six, two people, two dogs, and two cats.
Right now, I feel good because the little dog is alive. Had we not taken him in, he probably would not be.
A story I don’t tell too often because I am somewhat ashamed by it is one that happened many years ago. We were driving on a country road on the way to my in-laws when we saw this small dog running right toward us. We stopped and it went under the van. She finally came out and came to me. We took her to the in-laws and called the humane society. They were closed and no one was going to be available to take this dog until Monday. Having three dogs and three cats at home, and no kennel, there was no way we could keep her even for the weekend. We ended up taking her back where we found her and letting her go. This story has been living with me for many years. Now maybe I have made up for this. I don’t know.
I do know that I wish I had lied and told these people that it was not their dog. But I am too honest too. I just feel bad that I know he would have gotten more love being with us than not. But maybe that was not the plan. Maybe my par tin this was simply to save his life. I do know though that we could never be a foster (temporary) home for dogs. We would not be able to give them up when the time came.