Some of you may remember a while back I saved a poor old doggy:
http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,2213.0.htmlWell, it happened again. In fact it's happened a few times since then, with different dogs each time, and a few days ago it happened yet again. My wife was bringing in some groceries and said she thought there was a loose dog across the street. I jumped up, threw on some clothes (it was well below freezing outside) and grabbed some Snausages, and sure enough, there was this fat little beagle across the road poking around in someone's garbage. My wife was there before I was, as she was already dressed, and she was trying to convince the beagle to come over to her- she has an uncanny knack for coaxing animals to her, when they won't go near anyone else. Anyways, this guy was having none of it, and stood about ten feet away from her, barking at her. Then, as I approached, he started barking at me too.
Knowing beagles don't do much more than run, bark, eat and throw up so they can eat more, I tossed a Snausage to him, which he shut up long enough to dig out of the snow and gobble down. He was wearing a leash and a collar, but I couldn't see any tags, so I figured he must be a local. With a leash on, and carrying the extra weight, I figured he'd be no problem to catch, but I kept feeding him Snausages, tossing them closer and closer to me until he was eating out of my hands. Better to have him more comfortable coming with me than to snatch up his leash and force him, right?
Well it wasn't long before he was right up next to me, but when I took his leash he got concerned again. A couple of reassuring Snausages later and we were on our way across the street to my house. Well I'll tell you, he didn't want to come up a strange driveway or go into a strange house, but by this point I was asserting myself as the dominant one in our relationship and gave the leash a few quick tugs to let him know who was in charge. Kim had gone ahead to put our more intimidating (size wise and energy wise- she's a one and a half year old, 115 pound Shepherd/Rotti mix) dog Daisy in the bedroom, and when the beagle walked in the house, smelled other dogs and met Chinook, my 12 year old, 65 pound laid back Husky he instantly started to relax. It's funny how no matter how nice a person is, dogs almost always relax much easier when there are other dogs around!
After a few quick sniffs of eachother, Chinook just made himself comfortable while the beagle sniffed around the house. Daisy meanwhile was chomping at the bit in the bedroom, so we let her out, and after a bit of sniffing, the beagle growled and snapped at her. She's used to that, so she just backed off. There was nothing aggressive about it, just dogs being dogs. It wasn't long before the beagle had plopped himself down somewhere with one of the many chunks of rawhide that were laying about, and started chewing away. I consider it a bit of a mark of pride how fast strange dogs feel comfortable in my home!
With the beagle settled, I kept watch out the window to see if anyone was walking around the neighborhood looking for a dog. My worst fear was that the beagle's owner had been hit by a car or had slipped on the ice. After all, he was wearing a leash. I called Animal Control again to come pick him up, as it was the right thing to do, although to be honest, I would have probably been happier to just leave him here where he was safe and happy.
In fact, he was so happy, he didn't want to leave with the animal control officer! When she showed up she made me sign a form stating that this was
not my dog that I was trying to abandon. I told her if I was going to ditch any dog, it was going to be Daisy because she's a pain in the ass!
Not really, but it was funny.
Not knowing the beagle's name, I couldn't call him over to go with the officer, but Daisy comes running any time I say anything. So, here I am, calling out "Hey beagle!" and this giant mass of everything but beagle comes running! Meanwhile the beagle is standing a dozen feet away, looking at me as if to say "What? This is my house- I've always been here!"
Finally we got the little guy out the door, and I missed him almost immediately. I got a file number from the officer so I could keep track of him- I wasn't going to let the little bugger get dumped at the animal shelter with no hope. If no one claimed him and he went up for adoption, he was coming right back here, despite my wife saying at one point that she couldn't ever see us owning a beagle because of the noise!
A few days later I got in touch with animal control, who hadn't called me back as they promised, and the guy at the desk said he'd put through a request for the animal shelter my beagle buddy had ended up at to call me. They called within 5 minutes and told me he'd been reunited with his family, and that if I was interested in adopting a dog, they had many there to choose from. I told them I already had two big dogs, both from shelters, and that when we were in the market for a new dog, they would be the first ones we went to, as they usually are. All my dogs have been kennel dogs, and I have had some amazing dogs.
Anyways, I was told "off the record" who the owner was, that she had two beagles, where they lived and warned that she was "kind of odd," and that she's well known to them, so in the future if I find this guy wandering again I can just return him home, and save the woman the fees involved in reclaiming her dogs.
My hope is that since she's only a few doors down from us, that if he gets loose again, he'll know where to come, where there will always be an open door to a warm place filled with treats and rawhide! My dogs always mark the end of our driveway, and given a beagle's incredible sense of smell, I doubt he'll have trouble finding us again if the need arises.
While I miss the little guy, I am glad he's back home. Helping the helpless is such a great feeling!
Def
Donations
Community Links
