Monday, March 05, 2007

Dog wrangling

Last Thursday night, my neighbor Bridget and I arrived home from Jazzercise to see a sweet mini collie in our cul-du-sac. It was a cold night with a colder wind. I checked his tag. His name was Max and he was about 5 miles from his home -- over several busy roads and a highway. I picked him up and put him in my husband's car then went inside to google the address. I tried calling the number several times but it went directly to voice mail.

When I came back out of the house, I noticed a second dog in the shadows, a chow mix. He wouldn't come to me but seemed a little concerned I had his buddy in the car. I went back in for some puppy biscuits to entice him. But when I came out, he had disappeared.

So as I was driving my buddy Max, the sweetest little guy, back to his house, I wondered if the address was correct. Still no one answered at the number (my guess is dial-up internet) so figured I'll do something else if I get there and that's not his address. The distance over the highway and the road seemed a bit odd for this little guy.

I got to the address and most of the lights were off but I saw a shadow behind the door window and rang the bell. A teenaged boy answered the door. I had Max in my arms. "Is this a buddy of yours?," I asked. He looked preplexed and said yes. So I set Max down. I asked if he had a second pup, a chow mix and he again said yes. I told him where I lived and that I wasn't able to catch the second one (named Rusty).

His mother came down the stairs and he didn't say anything so I said, I found your Max wandering around my neighborhood and wow, he went far. She laughed. Ends up her daughter lives in my neighborhood and had both Max and Rusty. I said, oops! Do you want me to take him back? And she laughed and said no, she'd make her come get the pup. But thanked me for bringing him home.

Bottom line - make sure your dog's tags are current. At least this was one of Max's homes. It would have been worse if the whole family had moved. I would have had no way to find his home. But I always will pick up a wayward pup -- I would hope if mine ever wandered away, someone would do the same.

2 comments:

Sus said...

How ironic that the chow mix's name is Rusty cause that's the name of my mom's chow mix.

PammyJean said...

And along with tags, make sure that the company that keeps the info on the microship is in the loop, too.

One of the bigger companies is Home Again: http://www.homeagainid.com/

When I find a lost pup with no tags, the next thing I do is have a vet scan them.

Off to make that change for Sya's microchip.....