Yowie wrote:
As you know, there's been a dog-shaped hole in our hearts since Fluffy went
to Rainbow Bridge last month. To be honest, as much as I loved the
Fluffster, she was also a burden in the way cats aren't, because with a dog,
you can't just have a night or two away and just put down extra food and
water. She used the whole back yard as her litterbox, and thus left 'land
mines' for bare feet, she needed to be walked and groomed as she shed far
worse than any cat, and spent alot of her time just plain being in the way.
Of course, I miss all this too just as I miss her, but its also been the
reason Joel & I have been holding off getting another d-thing.

Yesterday, the vet rang to say Fluffy's ashes have finally come back from
the crematorium, and I was planning to go get them yesterday afternoon after
work. But I forgot, and instead of driving straight to the vet clinic, I
drove on 'automatic pilot' and drove home instead. I pulled into the
driveway, parked, stopped teh car, and opened the car door

And nearly died as a huge black pitbull/staffordshire type 'brute' leapt at
me

Thankfully it was to lick me to death rather than to maul me.

I got out of the car, being smothered with dog slobber, and opened up the
screen door to the house. In bolted the dog, wolfed down the cat kibble,
chugged down most of the cat water (the rest being sprayed across the
kitchen floor), then decided to lay belly-up in middle of the loungeroom,
tongue lolling and whip-like tail madly wagging. He was begging for tummy
rubs!

Wasn't Cary delighted we'd got him a new dog! Those two immediatley bonded
(despite me being *very* wary of strange dogs and small children, especially
dogs bred to fight) and they immediately set out to be best of friends.

The dog, who was still very much an intact male, had no colllar and was
otherwise unidentifiable. He didn't belong to any of my direct
sharing-a-fence neighbours, although one of the neighbours had seen the dog
hanging around the neighbourhood quite a bit.

Whilst Cary and the dog played ball, chasings and otherwise did dog-and-boy
activities, much to obvious great delight of both, I went door knocking.
No-one had any idea, but all had seen the dog in question (I had pictures on
my phone) just 'wandering' in the vicinity recently.

It looked like fate had delivered us our next furry friend., even if I
wouldn't naturally pick a staffy/pitty as the sort of dog breed I'd prefer.
A wandering dog was hihgly unlikley to have an owner, and it clearly wanted
and needed one. We had a dog-shaped hole in our family, and this dog had
just turned up. And Fluffy - at least her mortal remains - had been returned
and were going to come home. I thought it was a Sign. The dog made an exptra
special effort at sitting at Joel's feet, staring lovingly (and droolingly)
so as to convince the hardest one of us that the dog had found his family at
'long last'. It only took a few minutes of patheticness from the dog and the
squeals of delight from Cary for Joel to come around too. Oh sure, there
were the details of having to go to the vet to have the dog checked for a
microchip, but the fact that he wasn't desexed and had no collar was a Good
Sign. We were dog-owners again, and Pickle was just going to have to get
over himself (He did put on his best Halloween Kitty, but I suspect it was
just on Principle and not because he was actually going to teach the dog a
lesson. Suki didn't even *notice*)

But then the BusyBody of the neighbourhood knocked on the door (she's
lovely, but has nothing else much to do so busies herseolf with everyone
else's business) and told us that the folks who had just moved in over the
way had two dogs, and the one we had sorta looked a bit like one of theirs.
They were out when I had knocked on their door the first time, but I vowed
to knock again later.

About 2 hours later, once the dog had settled in and we'd fed it some
suspicious looking steak (the type that sits in the back of the fridge
because you'll cook it 'tomorrow' until 'tomorrow' finally comes and you
discover the steak is 3 weeks old and a bit green around the gills) and were
arguing on names, the new neighbour knocked on the door . "Hello? Anyone
there?"

The dog dropped to the floor, tail between his legs, and whimpered. I
answered the door and she said "You have a stray dog?" and I said "yes" and
showed her the pictures on my phone. "Oh yes, thats Austin. He's *always*
getting out. He's even gotten as far as the paddocks, stupid dog." (the
paddocks are a mile down the road).

Austin refused to move. Joel eventually had to pick Austin up and *carry*
him to his owner. "Thanks" said Austin's owner, and carried Austin back to
her place. Austin looked unhappy, but there was nothing I could do. I called
after her "He's always welcome to come over and play!". I don't think she
heard me, or if she did, didn't turn around or otherwise respond. I wasn't
joking, we'd be very happy to have Austin (although he'd be re-named to
something Cary liked, of course. Probably "SuperMegaUltraDog" or something
super-hero like (he does like his superheroes))

We had Austin for just over two hours, but even so, he left us with a very
sad Yowlet, and a dog-shaped hole in our hearts once more.

I think we'll have to go to the RSPCA this weekend and fill that hole for
another 12 years or for as long as Bast blesses us, and Pickle will just
have to break in the new d-thing just like Shmogg trained Fluffy. And thus
the natural order of the Universe will be restored...

Yowie
(will keep folks updated on the impending d*gness of the Chapman clan)





Don't be in too big of a hurry -- he may decide to come back! He seemed
to make it obvious he wanted your home to be his. Best wishes. MLB