Do the right thing

Look! We have a new friend! Sadly, he's not ours to keep. We were watching a movie on Sunday night, (Vicky Christina Barcelona. I got one word - Pasadena. It was so dull that near the end I WISHED Penelope Cruz would shoot somebody so we didn't have to watch them anymore!) Anyway, who do we see trotting through our backyard but this fine retriever! He was wet, cold, very hungry and more than happy to come in and get off the street. We live by a busy road so we cannot just let dogs go their merry way. He is the latest in a long line of dogs who show up here after they've gone walkabout.

The difference with this guy is I was afraid he was the same dog who was hiding in our yard last summer when the owner from hell came looking for him. Five a.m. and I wake up to this horrible man bellowing at his cringing dog under my bedroom window. He was mad because the dog wouldn't come to him. DUH! The dog knew it wasn't going to end well. And it didn't. The man grabbed the dog, walloped him and stuffed him in his truck. By the time I got outside, he was long gone. I have replayed this in my head a hundred times. What makes a man behave worse than any child in our preschool? Can one reason with such a person? Why can't he see that if you tell the dog to "come" and then smack him, he will not want to come next time? He's just trained the dog to disobey.

So here is this gorgeous, nice, dog in my house. What is the right thing to do for this dog? He might belong to the world's sweetest family, who are missing him terribly. He sure didn't act like a beaten dog, he was friendly and slurpy and frankly, a little wild. He was wearing a shock collar, but no tags. These collars have 2 big prongs that stick into his neck. I removed it.

What would I do if this was a child? I would report my suspicions to the authorities. So we took him to the humane society, on the advice of my vet. This is where I would look for my dog if Lucy went missing. I told them about the dog smacking owner and described him, in case he was this dog's owner. They said he had already been reported missing and his family would be coming right over to get him. His name is Bear. I hope it's a nice family.