A Better Future

This morning, as I was walking my mother's dog, Tobey, and my dog, Buddha, I saw a dog laying behind my daughter's car in our driveway. It didn't say a word, just watched us as we went for our morning walk. I thought, "great, another stray dog! But, he IS cute!" My dogs never even noticed him; he was so quiet. I took the dogs back into the house and wondered what to do about him.

As it turned out, this dog just showed up on our driveway the night before. He came up behind my daughter and touched her hand as she was getting out of her car, scaring her. Then she saw what it was and began petting him.

Does anyone know what kind of dog he is? He's the color of a German Shepherd but his coat is very wirey and he has eyebrows and whiskers like a terrier. I was actually surprised at how big he was when he stood up- 45 to 50 pounds. I thought he was smaller than that when I saw him laying there and his cute little face. 

When my daughter got up, she immediately went outside to see if the dog was still there. Of course he was, right where she last saw him, still behind/under her car! She told me the story of how she met him in the dark and then she asked me if she could give him something to eat. I figured this stray wasn't going to leave anyway so I said okay. That's the thing about stray dogs when they adopt people, they don't run away. (I have over 50 pounds of pedigree dry dog food left over from my two German Shorthaired Pointers who died last year.) She fed him and gave him water. We talked to him and he actually left the food and came over to lick each of us. Such a sweetie! Oh, and he is a she! We looked. 

Then, I had to go to work. I called my son a few hours later to tell him about the found stray and he immediately went out to feed her. Go figure! They say never to feed strays. But who are They to tell my children good advice, huh? He was so excited about the new dog but worried too. "I wonder how she got lost?" I was very happy to learn that she was very friendly towards him too. Usually, stray dogs are very scared of men. Still, I had him look on craigslist and the newspaper classifieds for any lost dog ads. He read the ads to me and none matched.

At work, I got to talking to a coworker about the lost dog and he suggested that the dog might have a microchip that would locate the owner. She was collarless but seemed to be in good health. Such a sweetie, how could she not be loved and missed by her previous owners? 

I left work early tonight and we took her to the vet's office. They checked the dog for a microchip. There was none. I took these photos of my daughter and the dog tonight. Looking in the dog book I have, I'm thinking she's an Australian Cattle Dog mixed with something? Terrier, perhaps? German Shepherd too??

The little gray blur on her lap is her friend's dog, a Schnauzer named Einstein, who never sits still. His nickname is "furball". The stray didn't seem to mind him too much but she does growl at Buddha. Of course, Buddha isn't a real dog, anyway. He's half cat. lol. Oh, and the collar is left over from the vet trip. It's Daisy's old collar. The dog didn't want to get in the car first but readily followed us into the car. She was very well behaved at the vet's office too. Unfortunately, the receptionist is the one who checked for the chip so I didn't get any information on age, breed, spayed? pregnant??

I love the next couple of photos. Is this true love or what? 

My dilemma- how hard do we look for the owners? This dog seems to have chosen my daughter. I did drive around looking at mailboxes for lost dog ads too. And my daughter knows the local animal control officer so we can call him tomorrow to see if anyone has reported her missing. We've also pretty much decided if we can find the owners, great, but if we can't, then that's okay too.

A Better Future - song: A Better Future, artist: David Bowie, album: Heathen