Doggone It!

Okay, so the story goes: I saw this little white blur run by my driveway Sunday morning, trailing a leash ... Watched & waited to see if it's people came running after it, no one did. I went and checked it out - found this dude sitting at the end of a neighbor's driveway ... I'm always worried about lose dogs getting hit on our street, so after finally cornering the muddy lil sucker in the cul-de-sac I brought him home (asking a couple neighbors on the way "Is This Yours?" or "D'ya Know Who's It IS?") ... Bring him inside to the many eyerolls of my husband and children ... he has no ID except for a rabies tag - call the 800-number and the nice recorded man tells me to try calling back during business hours ('Cause you know. Most dogs prefer to lose themselves Monday thru Friday between the hours of 9AM and 5PM)

So I take some pics, make some signs, hang them at the entrances to our neighborhood, figuring he must be a dog from the 'hood ... 8PM rolls around and no calls, so we crate him for the night ...

Monday Morning!
Call my vet to make Tonka's bath appointment and "oh by the way I found a new dog ya think you can scan him for a microchip or run his rabies tag, hmm?" - yes to the chipscan, but no to the tag since it's not through them ... but try calling the LOCAL numbers for that vet clinic and they should have the info (ding! duh!) ... 4 calls later (all of whom said "You know it might be easier for you to call our corporate number" and I'm all yeahhhh maybe if they were OPEN before 10 am our time...) Anyway. 4th call = score! Tech tells me his name is DJ and he's a Bichon and here's the name number and address of his owner - HOORAY! (and also, hmmm - 'cause I'm thinking that's kinda alotta info to give out, but I'm not a weirdo stalker or anything so it's okay. I just figured I'd hafta leave MY info and THEY'D call the owner, but what do I know ...) First thing I do after hanging up is say: "DJ! >perk< is that your name? Are you DJ? Hi DJ!" .... *Oh and a little interesting sidenote here - a few years ago we adopted a puppy from one of the groups that run out of the Petsmart on weekends - sadly and unbeknownst to us at the time - he had parvo, and he didn't even make it a week. I was devastated. His name? DJ. So was I meant to be the one to find this particular lost dog? Maybe. Though I tend to overanalyze kooky kosmic things like that ....

ANYWAY! I'm all YaY DJ, we found your Mommy, let's call her! Which we do and I leave a message 'cause no ones home ... We wait hopefully all day for the callback (in the meantime I've taken down the found dog signs, right?) and finalllllllly at like 6PM I get a ring "Hi this is Mz You Found My Dog calling you back, do you still have him?" and I say "Yup, he's laying on my lap right now!" and she laughingly says:
"You want'im?" and I reply with some laughter of my own "Ohhhhh Noooo, you don't WANT him!?"

So. A very nice and informative conversation later I've learned that this lady sold Mr DJ to someone in our neighborhood THAT Saturday, but she doesn't remember their name or info, etc and she's all worried "should I come get him?" etc - I guess she had to sell him 'cause she has some other pets, including DJ's own brother, who he doesn't get along with ... So I say well, he seems to be doing okay here and I'm fine with keeping him and I'll put the signs back up and work on trying to track these folks down ... just keep my number and if they call YOU, pass my info on and we'll go from there ... That was ? ... right, Monday night ...

We are now at Wednesday morning, and 2 new signs, 200 printed flyers (which were hung on as many neighbor's doors as we could manage yesterday, the rest hopefully today) an L&F ad in the classifieds and NO CALLS later ... he sleeps at my feet as I write this update :) Poor lil dooder.

I'm getting concerned because he seems to be getting Very Attached to me (and vice versa, to be honest!), and while I'd happily keep him, he is a bit like having a toddler in the house and it's wearing me out! Plus Mr Wonderful Husband has been extremely patient, I just don't know how much longer that's gonna hold ... Now, I do have 3 people in mind who I think would want him, and if that didn't work I know my vet would be able to find him a GREAT home. Lastly, I'm sure his original owner would come get him if it came to that ...

SO! The saga continues, be sure to tune in to see what happens next on "The Days of Our Dogs" ... haha!
and - Happy Wednesday :)

~ gem ~


ps ~ I know what's bothering me most is that he is SUCH a sweet little dog, and in the 3 days I've had him? I've not seen even one sign or ad or anything for a lost dog matching his descrip ... I don't get it ...