Today was crazy, unexpected, intense, draining, exciting, rushed, and fulfilling. All before noon!

P1040902

No, this is not a new member of our family. Almost, though!

Every morning before work, I take Riley on a walk. Today, this beautiful and sweet dog came up to us. I didn’t recognize her from the neighborhood, so I was wary at first. (Let’s be honest, she could eat Riley for breakfast.) But she was calm and friendly upon greeting us, and I figured her owner was just around the corner.

Wrong.

When I realized she was alone, I asked her to “go home.” (This has worked with lost neighborhood dogs in the past.) To my joy and relief, she went right up to the front door of a nearby house! Then she came back to me, and went right up to the next one! And the next one. And the next one…

Doh.

Realizing she was lost, I did the only thing I could do, the thing I would want someone who found Riley to do: I brought her home (coaxing her with kibbles), tied her to my patio, and took some pictures. For FOUND posters, of course. I taped a couple up around the neighborhood, asked my neighbor to check on the dog while I was gone, and went to work half an hour late.

(During this process, I also called Andy and my dog-loving coworker Suzie to freak out ask their advice on what to do. Per Suzie’s very good suggestion, I planned to take the dog to the vet this evening to see if she had a microchip. Luckily it didn’t come to that.)

At work, I went on Craigslist to post a FOUND listing. Before I even finished, I noticed a LOST listing with a picture. A picture of a dog that looked just like the one tied up on my patio! So of course I called the number, got the story from the dog’s owner, and quizzed him a bit. What color is the collar? What’s the dog’s gender? What’s the dog’s name? Obviously I didn’t know the answer to the last one, but I intended to find out at lunch.

A work errand allowed me to take an early lunch and swing by my house. Bella, as her name turned out to be, was still lying patiently on my patio, although she was hungry and playful when I went out to see her. Riley was wound up as usual, running and jumping and generally not being helpful.

Bella wasn’t very responsive to her name, so I asked the supposed owner for one more detail: what else was on her collar besides her tags? (Well, besides the ring for her tags. The tags had fallen off, probably during the night while she was wandering around lost in the storm.) He said that he had just bought the collar and it was too big, so he’d had to put a green twist-tie around the extra “tail” to keep it from flapping around. There was in fact a green twist-tie on Bella’s collar, so responsive or not, I knew she was his dog. Because seriously, HOW ELSE could he possibly know about a green twist-tie?!

Long story short (oops too late) I walked Bella and Riley over to rendezvous with Bella’s owner. He was obviously glad to see her. She was relatively aloof, but I’ve heard that huskies are like that. Apparently they are also escape artists and wanderers. GEE, I HADN’T NOTICED. Anyway, they were happily reunited, and I turned down a thank you lunch since I had to get back to work.

(I also showered and changed, because it was freaking hot as heck, and running around with two dogs at the same time was a workout!)

So that was my adventure. Thankfully this one had a happy ending — although I must confess I was a little sad when I got home and there wasn’t an extra puppy in my backyard. :P


11 responses to “Reunited and it feels so good”

  1. Todd Newton Avatar

    Aww, Bella is so pretty. You did a good thing returning her to her owner. Not very many people would have even cared. I’ve done the same thing myself for a little lost puppy, like ran out the door with one of my own dog’s leashes to keep it from getting away and find its owner, etc. Being that this is Colorado, it’s practically a rule for living here that you’d jump in front of a car to save a dog (even if it’s not your own).
    .-= • Recent post by Todd Newton: The Ninth Avatar reviewed at Temple Library Reviews =-.

  2. Aurora Avatar

    I love your animal adventures, but I need you to write some fiction.

    Yours,
    Your Muse

  3. Kristan Avatar

    Todd-
    Lol, I didn’t know Colorado was so dog-loving. Mmm, another reason to love that beautiful state.

    Aurora-
    … This is true. :(

  4. Albie Avatar

    haha, you said the craigslist posting had “a picture of the dog tied to my backyard” — i thought someone had snuck into your backyard and taken the picture :P

  5. Kristan Avatar

    LOL oops! I’ll clear that up.

  6. Sonja Avatar

    Wow, you are way more into checking the dog owner out than I would have been. Good for you, though. Glad it all worked out!
    .-= • Recent post by Sonja: The Bird and Squirrel School, or the BS School for short =-.

  7. Kristan Avatar

    Well since she is a sweet and beautiful purebred Husky, I was warned by friends that people might potentially claim her simply to resell her. Granted, I answer this guy’s listing, so I wasn’t AS concerned that that’s what was happening, but you can never be too sure, you know?

    Thanks, I’m glad it all worked out too. :)

  8. KristEn Avatar

    Wow. What a great story! And how lucky for Bella’s owner that you’re an honest person that wasn’t into keeping someones lost dog. You are a great person putting all that work into finding her owner!
    .-= • Recent post by KristeEn: I don’t even have a title for this post. =-.

  9. Les Avatar

    What a pretty dog, glad you found her owner and put so much thought into asking questions to make sure he was the right guy.
    .-= • Recent post by Les: Con-tro-ver-sy =-.

  10. Kristan Avatar

    Haha, thanks. If she wasn’t claimed, I *might* have tried to talk Andy into keeping her… [halo]

  11. Alex Avatar

    You and my mom, rescuing lost pups… :-D