One Foot on a Banana Peel

Last night Megan and I left the house a little before 7:00 to pick up a few things at Wally World and grab some Chinese take-out.  We got back just a little after 8:00 and as we were turning into the drive I looked over at the shrubs sitting atop our front retaining wall and about gave myself whiplash with the double-take I did.  There, lying in the mulch under the shrubs was a yellow lab or golden retriever mix.  As soon as we stepped out of the car several neighbors wandered over to ask about it.  I had no answers.  I’d never seen it before.  It was just lying there looking at me with the most pathetic expression.

I’m a dog-lover and I really am good with animals, so I eased my way over to it keeping low and talking softly to it the whole time.  I couldn’t see any obvious injuries, but it never offered to move and was shaking quite violently.

Speculation was rampant among the gathered crowd.  Hit by a car!  Ate some of that tainted dog food!  Poisoned!  Etc.  I didn’t know, but I kept edging closer and finally was able to reach out and touch it.  It seemed to welcome the touch and allowed me to keep stroking its head and feel enough to find a chain collar and license.  I checked with all the neighbors I knew who had similar dogs.  It wasn’t theirs.  So, my next step was calling all the shelters, the state police and a couple of animal control officers as well as two vets.  No one answered the phone except for the police, who "don’t do dogs" and gave me another number to try.  The vets don’t make night or weekend emergency calls.  The shelters were closed.

Meanwhile, the neighbors were calling everyone they could think of with the same lack of success and some of the ladies were getting pretty worked up.  My phone was ringing off the hook.  I’d put some blankets on the dog because it was getting colder, but I was afraid to try moving it and Tim didn’t want me to bring it in the house anyway. 

I was beside myself worrying about this poor dog and kept going out to sit with it, stroking its head and talking to it.  At some point I took a couple of dog treats and offered them.  They were gobbled up quickly, so I went in and got some food.  That also disappeared in seconds, so I produced another bowl of food that didn’t last long either.  Next thing I knew the dog was up and moving around.  Within minutes it was running all over the yard, but still sticking to me.  I guess we were buds.  The ladies across the street suggested that maybe it was in diabetic shock and the food helped. 

To make a long story a little shorter, those ladies decided to take the dog home with them for the night and this morning they took it for a walk and by some miracle ran into someone else out for a walk who said he’d seen a sign for a lost dog in the next neighborhood over.  They rushed over to check and sure enough it was the dog.  She’d only been missing since about the time Megan and I left to go to the store.  So, my bud is back with her family (five kids!) tonight.