Lesson Learned From A Lost Dog

Happy New Year!  I hope you and your furry friends all had a nice holiday filled with fun times and great memories that will last throughout the year.  I know my family and I will probably never forget this Christmas and our unexpected four-legged visitor. 

 

It was early Christmas Eve morning when an unknown  dog showed up in my parents' yard.  Because they have a yellow lab of their own, my mom initially tried yelling at the stray animal until it wandered on down the road.  A few hours later, however, we looked outside and the dog was back, just hanging around the fenced-in backyard and looking like all it wanted was to play with their yellow lab.  Eventually, the lost dog took up residency right outside the front door as if to say, "please, please, please let me in". 

 

The dog appeared to be healthy and well cared for but didn't have a collar to help us find it's owner.  Not knowing what else to do, we called the local animal control but, because of the holiday, they were short-staffed and could only send someone out if it was an emergency.  We then placed an ad on Craigslist as well as Facebook for anyone looking for their lost dog.  Realizing that there wasn't much more we could do and that the dog was obviously not leaving on it's own, my husband and I decided to give it some food and water late that evening as it hadn't had anything all day.  Up to this point, no one had been able to get close enough to pet the dog but after some food and water, it came right up to us and was quite friendly and sweet.  We eventually figured out that it was a female and she appeared to be a pit bull and/or boxer mix.

 

The next day was Christmas and we awoke to the sound of a howling dog...yep, she was still there at the front door.  My husband and I continued feeding her, giving her treats, and I even started calling her Eve since she had come to us on Christmas Eve.  Kind of silly, right?  Anyway, we gave her as much love and attention as possible because we felt soooo bad for her and her family missing each other on Christmas.  By the next day, Saturday, we managed to find a veterinary clinic that was open and took her there to see if, by chance, she had a microchip.  The good news is that she did have a chip but the bad news is that the chip was not registered so there was no way to contact her owner. 

 

At this point, we were really at a loss.  Craigslist and Facebook didn't yield any viable leads and now even the microchip seemed like a dead-end.  My husband and I toyed with the idea of keeping the dog ourselves, but this just wouldn't be feasible as we live in a very small condo.  By Saturday night, we decided to put another ad on Craigslist and Facebook to try to find a new home for the dog.  After only a couple of hours and lengthy text/phone conversations, we found a nice lady who had recently moved to the area, was missing her family, and had been looking for a "best buddy".  She came to see the dog early Sunday morning and we could tell right away that she was an animal lover as she had a paw print collar and plenty of treats already in hand.  Needless to say, they immediately hit it off.  I texted her a day or two later to see how things were going and she said, "Fabulous.  She's housebroken and spayed.  She's great!  Everybody loves her!  Thank you Santa Clause!"  She named the dog "BB" for "best buddy" and sent a picture of the dog all cuddled up next to her in bed.  I guess you could call this a Christmas miracle!   

 

It's more than a week later now and I still find myself thinking of our little Christmas visitor often and wondering how she's doing in her new home.  Hopefully it was a happy ending for this lovable doggy who got lost on Christmas Eve.  Unfortunately, there are many more lost pets roaming the streets all alone out there who may not be as lucky as this one.  The truly sad part is that this whole situation could probably have been avoided if the dog's microchip had been registered and kept up-to-date, so let this be a lesson to all of us.  Make a New Year's resolution to have your pets microchipped and, if they're already chipped, check to be sure the contact information associated with it is current.  My family never fully understood just how important this is until they went through this experience.  Protect your pets in 2016!   

 

Happy tails to you until we meet again!