Friday, August 8, 2008

Tequila at Midnight

OK, eleven thirty but that doesn't make it sound as cool, does it?



Actually, there is nothing cool about the situation. About 9:30 tonight, the next door chihuahuas started yapping and Lani, who was in the house at the time, started growling and snarling. This is not a terribly unusual occurrence but this time it reached a deafening level and showed no sign of stopping. I let Lani out into the back yard where she ran to the fence and kept barking and barking and barking accompanied by the chihuahuas. I went into the garage and turned on the light that shines over the driveway. That is when I heard the car alarm. Looking out the garage windows, I could see nothing. The dogs were getting more and more excited so I opened the garage door. That was when I saw him. He was peeing on one of the cars in the neighbor's driveway.



The neighbors came out to see what was causing all the commotion.



"Over here," I yelled. "It's a dog." I walked toward him as he turned toward them. I put my hand on his neck. No collar. I began stroking him.



"I bet someone dumped him out here,"said M.



"Watch him, and I'll go get a collar," I said.



I turned toward the garage and here her give him the command to sit. Looking over my shoulder, I saw that he had done it. M and her husband, A, praised him. Their granddaughter wanted to pet him but we weren't sure it was a good idea. I put the collar on him and he seemed almost grateful. M held him by the loop on the collar while I got a leash and Stephen.



We put the leash on him and decided to put him in our back yard until morning if Lani approves. Then I can take him to the vet to see if he has a chip. It is dark out here and some people drive way to fast to leave a dark colored dog out on his own.



Lani has been going berserk. Stephen got a leash on her and brought her out to the side yard to meet the visitor. They sniffed each other in greeting and we decided that he could stay in our back yard until morning. Lani wanted to play but he did not seem to know any of her games. We let them hang out a while them then brought her in and gave him some food. He didn't seem interested. He had been marking everything and we did not want to bring him in. Lani laid by the back door and whined until we let her out. After a while, it became apparent that he was going to keep the chihuahuas barking all night by going over to the fence repeatedly.



I took a photo of him and posted it to craigslist in the lost & found and the pets sections. By the time I was finished, it was clear that we could not keep him overnight as we had planned. Stephen volunteered to make the drive down to the shelter. I wrote a note saying that he knows sit and shake and possibly down and a few other commands as well as where he was found and that he seems to have a sweet disposition. Luckily, there was an attendant on duty when he got there so he was able to talk to someone instead of just leaving the note.



When he got home, we decided that we both needed a shot of tequila. Taking the boy to the doggy jail was not an easy decision and not an easy thing to do after we decided we had to do it. We do think we will want a second dog some day. We both knew that this was not our dog. Cute as he is, he is already taller that Lani and seemed to be pretty young. My guess is about six months. He has not been neutered. He was somewhat timid but I have the feeling that he is pretty active when he settles in and we are not looking for a really active dog. In fact, we are not looking for a dog at all. He put his head on my knee and leaned against me for petting. He treated Stephen the same way. We hope he finds a loving home. He did not deserve to be dumped, if that is what happened.



5 comments:

FriĆ°vin said...

As I was reading this my heart was skipping beats. I was afraid there was going to be a dog bite woven into the story.

The guy at my liquor store had one of those last week and he finger was bandaged up. A pit bull.

Tequila at 11:30 indeed. I was already long passed out by then. My tequila shots ended about 9:30-ish.

dmmgmfm said...

Awww, he's so cute. Good on you for making sure he didn't get hit by a car!
I hope you let us know if you find out what happened to him.
Hugs,
Laurie

Ginnie said...

I hope he wasn't abandoned...just ran astray.
I am confused by your last comment on my blog about old music. The Mairzy Doats song ends just like you wrote...but I wrote that too,
(mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy.”)
The only part I didn't put in was the "kids will eat ivy too, etc."
Where is the mondegreen? or did you never hear the first part?

Unknown said...

No bites. I get the feeling that he is very non-aggressive.

He is cute. In fact, he is so ugly that he is cute. Wirey dark hair, long spindley legs. Tan and white on his front feet. Head shaped like an Irish wolfhound. Short tan 'feathers' onhis backside and a tail that is black on top and tan and fluffy on the bottom which he carries curled over his back. A weird combination doggy genetics. We most likely won't try to find out what happens to him. If no one adopts him, I would be really tempted to take him and we just cannot do it right now.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

When we lived in TN, someone dumped a puppy off by our house and we adopted him. We named him Rufus because my daughter had just seen Rufus Thomas in concert, and he was the most ungovernable dog I have ever lived with.

Two years later, we moved to California and gave him to the women who bought our house so he got to stay on his land. If we had tried to take him with us, I'm sure he would have gotten us killed in traffic.

It was heartbreaking to leave him but in the end, he wasn't our dog either. I would like to believe that your night visitor will find his people soon because he looks like a sweetie.