A little adventure

This morning, I was on my way home from taking the kids to school when on the first street in my neighborhood I saw a little dog walking along the sidewalk. There wasn't anyone around (like its owner), so I slowed down to see if it would go to somebody's front door and get safely home. It didn't. In fact, once I started driving normal-speed again, it took off running down the street. It had a collar on and was clearly somebody's pet.

I followed it for a while because I was worried about it getting hit by a car, and occasionally I pulled over to try to get it to come to me, so I could look at its tags and call the owner. In no time, it had run all the way through my neighborhood and into the adjacent one. Eventually I had it cornered in a cul-de-sac but it snarled at me and bolted away again when I got close. It seemed to be getting tired from all the running, so I left it there in the cul-de-sac (where I thought it might stay put for a few minutes) and I drove back to the original street I saw it on.

At this point, I realized I was wearing my pajamas, but I having already invested 15 minutes into this adventure I felt I had to see it through. I started knocking on doors to see if it belonged to somebody on that street. As luck would have it, I met success at the second door I tried.

"Do have a little dog with a red collar?"

"Yes, I do! Oh no! I thought she was in the other room sleeping! I TOLD my husband she would get out if he wasn't careful with the door. Where is she??"

So I drove her (Donna) over to the street where I had last seen her dog. Not unexpectedly, it hadn't bothered to say right where I left it, so we searched everywhere; it was an industrial street and she went to several businesses asking employees if they'd seen her dog. Meanwhile, I drove up and down a few other neighborhood streets nearby. After 15-20 minutes we hadn't seen any sign of the dog, but Donna had succeeded in sparking the interest of the business employees and a few of them were out searching too. And, Donna gave them all her cell phone number in case anyone found it. I drove her back home and she was quite upset about the situation; sure she would never see her dog again.

I encouraged her to make signs to put around the neighborhood, and assured her that anyone who found the dog would return it (she was SURE that anyone who found it would keep it for themselves since it was so cute). It was an 8-week-old puppy that they had just gotten, and she couldn't believe it could run so far away.

After I dropped her off, I went home and proceeded with my day.

About three hours later I went out to run some errands and on my way out I drove through the neighborhood and the adjacent one, to see if she had posted signs on lightposts or mailboxes. There were none. So I called her to see if she had found the dog.

"Hello, this is Donna."

"Hi Donna, this is Sara, from this morning..."

"Oh hi! Guess what, I found my dog!"

"Great!! Where was she?"

"Actually, it was the funniest thing; when I got home she was right there in the house! I think that a neighbor who knows what she looks like must have found her and brought her home while we were out looking for her; the front door was unlocked so I guess they just put her inside."

. . . . . . .

I'm pretty sure the dog I was chasing was NOT Donna's dog, and that Donna's dog was home the whole time, and that I worried her unnecessarily. I should've recognized the signs right off:

1. Until I notified her, she didn't think her dog was missing.

2. She said her dog had a brightly-colored cast on one foot from recently having the front door accidentally shut on it. I never noticed a cast on the dog I was chasing, brightly-colored or otherwise.

3. Donna's dog is an 8-wk-old Shih Poo. I just Googled that breed for pictures... and that is not the kind of dog I saw. It was small, but small in a full-grown-small-dog way; not in a teeny-tiny-cute-fuzzy-puppy way.

4. Donna was convinced that anyone who found the dog would keep it for themselves since it was so cute. The dog I followed was not very cute, and it snarled when I got close to it.

5. When one helpful business owner on that industrial street asked us what color the dog was, Donna said, "white" while I simultaneously said, "tan."

So. It's a bit of a mystery.

photo credit. NOT the dog I saw this morning... not even close.