It should be said that strays are attracted to me for some reason. Perhaps they can smell that there is a soft-hearted sucker living here? Or perhaps there are other forces at work. I'm not sure. I know Boots found me 8 years ago, and 8 years later we are still devoted one to the other. This is another story for another time.
So, I named the two animals. The Boots look-alike became Chadwick (Chad for short) and the black lab-looking pup became Thadeus (Thad for short). Because of the size of the animals, Thad (about 5-6 months old at most) was already as big as Chad. They were both just a tad smaller than Boots. My house is small and my yard is not fenced. Boots is a house dog, but the small house is not large enough for all of us. I called the nearby Humane Society, but they said it would be 3 weeks before they could take them, so I called animal control but they wouldn't take them because I'm from out of their county. So for the time being my options were limited.
It didn't take long for Chad and Thad to grow attached, and after the 2nd feeding, when I would yell out "dinner time", they came running. These dogs learned quickly how to let me know they wanted a belly rub. A pat on the head prompted a quick roll to the belly-up position and total ecstasy as their bellies were rubbed simultaneously.
Both seemed to have learned their names and came immediately when called.
About three days before the humane society could take them, a tragedy. A near by neighbor knocked on the door to let me know that my dog had been run over. They told me they were sure it was Boots (everyone in the community knows Boots--after all, he is the neighborhood socialite). Boots came to the door with me, and they and I realized it wasn't Boots. I knew it was Chad, however. Sadly, I went to check and my worst fears were realized. I'd only been taking care of Chad for about 2.5 weeks, but the attachments were already manifest. Yep, I cried. Not sure what made me more unhappy. Was it the fact that he had been run over, or the fact that I had taken him in to protect him from harm and failed so miserably? All of the most horrible thoughts ran through my mind as I covered Chad with a sheet and lifted him into the trunk of my car. As I laid Chad to his final rest, the tears ran down my cheek as I remembered how eargerly he ran to me, how much he enjoyed having his belly rubbed, and how anxious he was to have some one love him. Heck, I am crying as I write this. Oops. I'm proof reading and crying again. I tell you. S I G H!!!
Thadeus and Chad had apparently been out on their own together. Thad seemed to try to emmulate Chad. Of course Thad was still a puppy and was forming his own distinctive personality. Yes, personality. All pups have them and each is distinct in its own right. Thad became even more attached to me. Let me point out that Boots, though tolerent, does not appreciate all this attention that he's not getting, and you can see this in the collage photo of them. He looks completely exasperated . He has been the whole cheese for so long, well, he just sort of backed off. He was never aggressive toward Thad or Chad.
Well, after the Humane Society refused to take in Thad for the 2nd time, I took him to Florida with Boots and me to see how he would react to Doug and his dogs. Thad was afraid and the other dogs were aggressive with him. He would not let anyone else touch him, and would run to me for comfort. After 5 days this did not change so after Doug said that he was afraid of Thad because he had growled at him, we (Boots, Thad and I) returned to Georgia. I stopped by animal control on the way home. I was told that they could not take animals from out of the county. I begged and pleaded and requested that they see Thad. Boots sitting in the front seat was totally unconcerned. I opened the back door, driver's side, and called out in a babyish voice “Thadeus. Thadeus, come here baby. Come on.“ He immediately wagged his tail and came to me for attention. The animal control person said, “You're killing me, you know. Okay, but you can't tell anyone about this. Take the animal inside." See, I promised not to tell anyone, but I am writing about it with no names to protect those concerned enough to act! Thanks for that!
I expressed concern about impending “put down“ but my fears were allayed. It seems that after his quarantine, he would adopt quickly because he seemed to be a frisky puppy. This type of dog is in demand. I was guided to the kennel. After the door was opened, I put Thad down inside the kennel. He licked me one last time which brought on an immediate torrent of tears. As I finally walked away, I turned my head to look back. The sight will be ingrained in my mind for the rest of my life. He was standing at the door, front paws on the wire door, looking and howling toward me. It broke my heart and the torrent of tears continued with renewed intensity. For the 2nd time, trying to protect, I've forsaken the bond that had formed and walked away from a new friend. That was the last time I saw Thadeus. I hope his story goes on and that his new friends and family enjoy him and love him at least one-half as much as I did. I'm terribly sorry that Chad did not have the same opportunity. Terribly.
But, like Thad, my story goes on. The road takes me places sometimes that I don't expect..even when the road is right here at home. Let's jump ahead now to October. The last week of October when my friends from England were here. The time with them is always fun, exciting and otherwise fillled with love. The day before their departure we took our trash to our local dumpster site (we don't have garbage pick-up in our very rural community). As I drove up the ramp to the dumspters, I saw a little black pup on the left of the embankment. I stopped the car, popped the trunk open, and walked toward the pup. The pup looked like it wanted to come to me, but retreated down the embankment. Not letting myself be shunned, I followed. “Oh my goodness,“ I called out. I'm sure you're not going to believe this...I barely did myself. Low and behold there were two more pups hiding behind a small pile of garbage. My friend with me, got out of the car and followed my lead down the embankment. Her amazement equalled mine, and once we managed to gather the pups into our arms, we knew that we could not leave them there alone. They were only 6-7 weeks old and “inspection” (if you know what I mean?) revealed evidence that all were female. One black, two reddish brown rode quietly and still on our laps back to the house. They were put in the back room along with a bowl of food and water. They gobbled the food, then walked through the bowl of water 2 or 3 times before they stopped for a drink. Can you believe that they let us know, at this young age, that they needed to get outside to take care of business (the poop business). Only a couple of puddles in the back room and I'm not sure it wasn't just spilled water. They had found a temporary home and a little girl, Sue's daughter Ania, that was happy as a clam to have 3 pups to pet and pamper. That night was not fun. Doug's two dogs were not extremely happy with the new arrivals. We spent most of the night shushing them and of course it disturbed the babies and their cries were heard most of the night. The next morning Sue made calls to shelters for assistance. She finally found one in Savannah that would receive them if we could get there within the next two hours. We quickly loaded the pups into a box and off we go (Sue, her daughter, Ania, and Doug). We arrived at the Animal Control Intake gate. It was locked of course, with a sign instructing whomever needed assistance to honk the horn. We did so and received the attention of the intake personnel. Upon seeing these cute little babies, her comment was, “I need to call my brother right now. He's been looking for a pup like this and they seem so healthy and active.“
Another car pulled up with a mom and her daughter. They were curious to see inside the box. I heard the daughter say, “Oh mom, this one is so cute. Can we take it?“ Her mom told her that it was fine with her. I didn't feel badly this time as I knew, with no doubt, that these three little baby girls would find a home after their quarantine period was completed. Two had already been “promised“ before we drove off.
Please feel free to see all of the forlorn pups at the link below. I'm happy that we were able to share a moment in time with them and that the future for them looked very optomistic.
