Germs

The first weekend in October my husband was driving home from work. His path from the farm wher he works takes him down some country roads. He had a show to play with his band that night and our kiddos had company coming for a sleepover and we had two sitters coming over to monitor the kid crew.

Driving around a curve in a rush, he saw a dog standing in the road. After almost hitting it because it didn't move at the sight of a Honda, my sweet husband got out of his car to see what was the matter with this creature. When he did the dog jumped into his front seat, then cozied up in the backseat next to our hound who was napping there, all stinky and oblivious to what was going on around her.

He went to two houses near that location (he said there weren't any homes near, but after searching there were a couple that were close-ish). No luck. He kept texting me asking what to do. I finally said, "Just bring the thing home. We'll find the owners in the morning. You have a show to play!"

We looked for ads on Craigslist. We posted an ad on Craigslist. We looked for ads in the town nearest where he'd been found. I stopped at the vet's office there trying to find an owner. The vet said a lot of dogs are dumped out there.

Poor dog. He was starving and thin. He was fixed, so he obviously had some owner at some point. He knew about getting into cars. He knew about hopping onto our bed (this, he only did once), he also had a BAD chewing habit which is maybe why he was dumped by the road with no leads to find his way home. He ate and ate and ate and gained weight quickly. He seemed happy to be in a home, but had bad manners and didn't seem very smart. He did start to teach the hound how to PLAY. We didn't know how much she liked to be playful. The old dog Rex never played so she never played until the puppy showed her just what to do. Her flappy fleshy self enjoyed a romp and growling and chasing. We would have never known. The puppy even got Rex to wag his tail a few times!

Even so...

After chewing the fourth pair of shoes (INCLUDING THE PORTLAND SHOES) and my husbands best hat (I really hated the hat so secretly, I was happy when he ate that) I was ready to ship him back to the wilderness for the next chump with a shoe budget to pick up. But then, we got him a crate. It was like having a new dog. In addition to riding in cars and jumping on beds, this dog had, in his former life, had his own crate. He was SO relaxed once the crate arrived. He ran right in. Now, he goes right in. When there is confusion, he get inside of the crate with the door open and relaxes. Rarely is a shoe chewed or anything taken into the yard randomly through the dog door. He just needed a crate.

Apparently our two old long low dogs just needed a puppy-ish friend.