It’s been two weeks since my last post, but some time in the next 7 days, I hope to resume my magazine quest, this time with a review of Cirsova (I’ll include a silly intro story as usual). If you missed it earlier this year, it’s time for you to check out my interview with Cirsova’s founder/editor.
Lately, I haven’t had any free time because I’ve had girl trouble. No, I’m not cheating on my wife. One of the girls is my wonderful wife, who I had to drive 5+ hours (one way) to an international airport, so she could visit her parents. This is the other girl in question:
That photo doesn’t quite do her justice; she’s a real super-cutie. She’s at least partially border collie, maybe even pure bred. She just showed up in our yard one Saturday, and we knew she wasn’t a typical stray, since her coat was clean and combed, and her teeth were as clean and white as any teeth I’ve ever seen. She also didn’t have any fear of people. She ran up to each new person, leaned on their leg, and looked up at them with a facial expression that said “hello, new best friend.”
We took her around to local veterinarians, hoping that she would have a microchip, or that their staff would recognize her. No luck, but we learned that she is incredibly well behaved on a leash and in the car. We then drove her around all the neighborhoods near our house, asking if anyone knew her owner. I was nervous doing this, because on television, the guy who asks you to take a look at the lost dog in his car is a serial killer 100% of the time. I’m glad my wife was with me.
As we were doing this, we heard what sounded like a siren, very loud but distant. At first we thought it was a tornado warning, but it sounded different, and we couldn’t identify it before it stopped. A few minutes later, two Apache helicopters began circling overhead. Science fiction scenarios flashed through my mind. The puppy had escaped from a bioweapons laboratory, and was carrying a virus which would start the pandemic and/or zombie apocalypse. (You just know the government would use border collies, the Houdinis of the canine world, in its top-secret labs). The puppy was an alien from a downed UFO, who’d adopted the form of the first local creature it encountered. The puppy could read minds and transfer memories to other humans, and corrupt politicians wanted it dead. My suspicions all seemed to be confirmed when the puppy jumped from the back seat into the rear cargo area where she’d be harder to see.
We didn’t have any luck with our physical search, so we went online. Facebook has a lot of local groups dedicated to re-uniting lost pets with their owners. I’ve been harsh on Facebook in the past; maybe it’s time I gave them a break. Eventually, I found a picture of our stray on another website which displayed lost and found pets. Somebody had found her as a stray before, in a neighboring city. I sent off an email, hoping the previous finder could tell me who they’d returned her to. Cutie-girl, who we’d started calling “Bubbles”, spent Saturday night in our house.
After a few rounds of phone and email tag, we eventually learned that the previous finder had never found the original owner, and had given the dog to an older gentleman — right across the street from us! The dog was brand new to him, so I hadn’t seen her in the neighborhood before.
On Sunday night, we got her home safely, but I immediately began to miss her terribly. I guess I didn’t need to worry — she’s escaped and come to see me three times since then.
Planetary Defense Command 
Aw, that’s such a sweet tale! Even had a couple of choppers to go with it. Sounds like it’s time you got a girl of your own, though!
While my wife is out of town, I’ll try to spend more time with the little girl we adopted from the animal shelter. She is always attached to my wife, following her from room to room. Normally she gets sad when my wife goes out of town, but my uncle is visiting, and brought his dog, so the two dogs are running around the house playing with each other.
Sounds like she skipped the red tape and adopted you.
But if she lived with us, then where would she escape to?
Maybe she was looking for you all along.
I love where your imagination roams – serial killers, pandemics, alien invasions. Ha ha. Perhaps you’ll have a regular visitor. 🙂
Yeah, I guess a normal person wouldn’t take it beyond “stray dog”.
I wouldn’t mind occasional visits…
She’s chosen you and your wife as her humans. Accept it 🙂
Lovely story, by the way – and lovely, cute dog!
We’ll see. I think the old man might need her company more than we do.
Our dog is a stray we adopted straight off the street. We talked to vets, rescues, and put up dozens of flyers. No dice. I still feel bad sometimes that he might have had a loving family and we just weren’t able to find them. But judging from how he reacted when we moved a few months later, he was abandoned when his old owner couldn’t take him with him.
We found another dog several months ago and were never able to find his previous owners, eventually adopting him out directly. We found him on the street corner right by his house, so he must have been dumped.
A lot of people in our neighborhood just let their dogs out the front door to use the bathroom. We try not to kidnap any of them.
I bet that old man could use the companionship…and I bet he could use someone to help him walk and play with the dog.
I’ve taken my dog over there for a romp once already, and I’m sure I’ll do it again. The old man has a daughter who has three dogs, and he took his dog over to her house to run crazy.
Cute…
😉
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