Another Unhappy Story

He came bounding joyously across the street to meet us …… right in front of a passing car!

“He” was a downright dirty, ragged, maybe labradoodle with a happy grin on his face. The passing car fortunately was moving slowly through our residential neighborhood and braked in time to save him, though the driver gave me a dirty look, obviously assuming “he” was my own out-of-control pooch. The “us” in this equation was me and my dog, Angel, taking an afternoon stroll.

The happy hound, of course, had no ID. And he wasn’t just dirty, he was absolutely filthy and looked as if he had a definite flea problem with bald patches around his rump where someone had made an attempt to shave him. He was however, well-fed, with just the sweetest nature.

This is how a healthy labradoodle looks.

Assuming he might have got loose from someone’s back yard I started canvassing the area. The only thing I learned was that he’d been seen running on a number of ocassions in recent weeks, nobody had a clue where he lived and Animal Rescue had been called a couple of times but, to anyone’s knowledge, were a no-show.

Meanwhile, Doodle (I had to call him something!) was delighted to hang out with Angel. And without an extra lead on me it seemed prudent to head for home, doing my best to canoodle Doodle along. We made it safely and, leaving Angel in the house, I popped the lead on Doodle and went back to the home-searching quest.

Several houses later and still luckless I flagged down a passing kid on a bike and, “Eureka”, he knew the dog and its home. The hound’s name was Yoshi and he lived about three blocks away.

On approaching the house, the next door neighbor happened to come out with her beagle.  She recognized Yoshi, of course, and told me his story. The dog had been adopted from the pound by a mother for her son. The boy, apparently, loved the dog and took reasonably good care of him but in recent weeks the pup had just been let out of the house to roam free every day.

By now I wasn’t too keen on returning the pooch but I hated to part a boy and his dog, so figured a few words of reproach might do. I never got the chance! Mother opened the door, took Yoshi, and slammed said door right in my face! The brief glimpse I got inside was, frankly, ghastly. The dog was no more of a mess than the mother and home. I had to wonder about the son.

Anyway, I’ve since found out that there has been trouble at that unhappy home. The son has been taken away and is living with his grandparents in another town. There have been times, also, when the mother has gone away and left the dog in the house without food and water. The neighbor has been able to feed him through a broken window.

You can be sure I’ll be keeping a careful eye on Yoshi’s circumstances from now on. I may just have to keep walking Angel in that area and, if Yoshi “happens” to follow me home again, he won’t be going back.

There is of course a moral to this story. In fact it goes to the heart of what this blog is all about. It’s all too easy to adopt, or buy, a pet, without the slightest idea of what is required to care for that pet or any concept of the commitment involved. So many animals who are adopted and apparently “saved” from shelters end up right back at another shelter, that is if they’re lucky enough not to be dead.

And there’s yet another little twist to this episode. The neighbor’s beagle isn’t actually the neighbor’s beagle. He was found earlier that morning by the neighbor and her husband when they were out walking. No ID (surprise, surprise!), rather thin and very hungry. He was another sweet-tempered little dog though, unlike rambunctious Yoshi, very shy. According to the neighbor he was not house-trained (another common reason people dump their dogs) and, sadly, she was unable to care for him and had phoned Animal Rescue to come and get him. I just so hope he finds a loving forever home!

“Our dogs will love and admire the meanest of us, and feed our colossal vanity with their uncritical homage.”  ~Agnes Repplier