Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Scotties

The Scottie story:
This morning, one of my dogs got loose. My husband called me, and since I was only a few minutes away from home, I turned around and came back home to help corral her. Apparently the situation had been complicated by two Scottie dogs who appeared, distracting our dog.
I went inside, grabbed a harness and leash, and a fistfull of dog treats.

When my dog saw me, she ran straight at me, and I was able to get her harness attached to her and give her a few treats. The Scotties came along, too, so they also got treats. I asked my husband where he found these two little guys, and he said they just showed up. I had never seen them before, and I keep pretty close track of all the dogs in our neighborhood.

Neither of them had a collar on, so there were no tags to check.

It has been raining and very muddy lately, so these two were very wet, and very dirty. They even had leaves and large burs stuck in their previously well-groomed coats. They had obviously been traveling through the woods.

Since I had no clue as to where these two came from, and no one was emerging from the neighboring homes to claim them, I escorted them to our house, grabbed my keys and loaded them up in the car.

We drove to the Prince William County animal shelter.

They were both exhausted from their roaming adventure so far, and while one curled up on my leather jacket in the passenger seat, the other laid on my left leg and rested his head on the car door. Both of them slept for most of the trip. I guess Scottie legs aren't meant for long distance travel.

I dropped them off, and was relieved to find out that they were both micro-chipped, so it was likely that their owner would be found. I took down the numbers assigned to them so I could periodically check in on them. Realizing that I was way too muddy to go to work, I went back home to quickly change clothes. As I was leaving again, I noticed a woman driving a mini-van very slowly through the neighborhood. Suspecting I knew why, I followed her and pulled along next to her when she pulled over to let me pass. "Are you looking for two dogs?" She replied, "YES!" "Scottie dogs?" "YES!" I told her that I had found them, that they were wet and dirty, but that they were safe and I had brought them to the shelter. She was quite relieved, and directly to go pick them up. Later, when I came home from work, I found a note and two flower baskets on my porch.

I am so glad they got to go back to their loving home. They do live in my neighborhood, though quite a ways away, and had broken the gate at around 7:00 this morning. I have a bit of a reputation for finding lost dogs... the last one was a pitbull puppy whose owner I found after bringing him into the office with me for the day. I don't think I see any more lost dogs than anyone else, I just think that I stop for them more often. And it helps to keep dog treats in the glove compartment, just in case...

4 comments:

pat's pottery said...

Very cute and you have a good soul:>)
Thank you for putting my
Yellow Stoneware Basket in your story!

artpaw said...

LOL. What a clever and creative way to tell your story. Thanks for including one of my Scottie prints in your story and thanks even more for stopping for strays. Nobody realizes what a huge chunk of time it takes out of someone's day to round up wayward dogs and get them reconnected with their humans. I know the drill only too well myself. I am also a Scottie owner and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your good deed.

loneweever said...

Great Scott ... what a tail.

and aren't Scotties so perfect for artists' renditions ... you've chosen some great ones. it must be satisfying, although time-consuming, to:
(1) re-rescue your own dog while rescuing strays ... and
(2) search for wonderful and appropriate illustrations to feature along with your blog posts.

Keep on postin' and writin' and choosin' and rescuin'...

Jennifer Bohrer said...

Hey, cool! Thanks for including Dad's Scotty key chain and helping lost dogs too. We seem to be the wayward cat finders in our neighborhood, what can you do when they come to you? Tender hearts can't turn away from small fur people....