Monday, October 27, 2014

I May Or May Not Be A Dog Napper

I sort of kidnapped a puppy this weekend.

Saturday evening, Emma and I were in the front yard, taking pictures of her in her Pig in a Blanket costume, when a black lab-ish puppy wandered down the street and over to us. She was leggy, about four or five months old, and wearing a pink Martha Stewart collar (no joke) with no tags. She was friendly, but a little apprehensive, and also seemed to have kennel cough.

My little pig in a blanket wanted to keep it until we found the owner.



Two sets of puppy dog eyes working on me.


My neighbor from up the street came by about that time, being walked by her two basset hounds. We asked her if she recognized the pup (as we learned during our summer puppy fostering adventure that dog owners in the neighborhood all know each other), but she didn't. The pup decided to follow her up the street, her dogs were going ape shit over the whole thing, so Emma gave ME puppy dog eyes and followed the parade up the street, returning a short time later with the puppy on a leash. She carried the pup (as she refused to walk on her own) into our fenced backyard before leaving for her party. 

I gave the pup a bowl of water and some EXPENSIVE cat food (which she turned her nose up at), then went up the street to talk to my neighbor, who was then visiting with ANOTHER dog owning neighbor. No one had ever seen the dog before. I put the pup's picture on Facebook, on my wall and also on the humane society's wall. No one came forward saying they knew where the dog belonged.

I kind of forgot about the puppy in our backyard until morning, but when we checked on her, she was still a little skittish, still coughing, but had eaten the cat food and drank some water. My daughter tossed a tennis ball for her, and she not only ran after it, she brought it back for more. Over and over. Obviously, someone had taught her how to fetch; she was somebody's baby! I went to the store and bought some puppy food.

Fetch in the backyard.


When the humane society opened at 1:00 on Sunday, Emma and I loaded her in the car. She trembled and wheezed all the way there. We took her inside to see if she had been microchipped, and miracle of miracles, she not only had been, she had also been adopted from that very humane society, as they make a small, green tattoo on females near their incision from their spaying (I neither know, nor WANT to know, what they tattoo on males). They looked her up on their computer, called the phone number, left a message with my phone number, and told us we could either leave her there or take her home with us. We opted to take her home and wait for the owner to (hopefully) call. 

As we were getting in the car in the parking lot, my cell phone rang.

"I got a message from the humane society that you found my puppy?"

Hallelujah!

I told the woman we were just leaving the humane society and would be home in five minutes.

"Where did you find her?" she asked. I told her the name of our street.

"I live right by there," she said. "Which house do you live in?"

I described our house. Two story Tudor. White--

"With green trim? Red Cross truck in the driveway?"

Ummm. Yess....

"I live across the street from you, in the corner house."

Oops.

We kidnapped the neighbor's dog.

In all fairness, (a) they keep to themselves pretty much; (b) have only had the dog since mid-September; (c) we didn't even KNOW they have had a dog since mid-September; (d) the pup wandered over to our house from the entirely opposite end of the street from where she lived; and (e) SHE WASN'T WEARING ANY TAGS AND THEIR YARD ISN'T FENCED.

The owner was waiting outside her house when we pulled in the driveway. The puppy (Lilly, we now know) greeted her non-chalantly and wandered across the street to her own yard. The neighbor said Lilly liked to chase the cat and probably went down the alley and got lost. They noticed she was missing about fifteen minutes after we had kidnapped her locked her inside our backyard. 

Emma and I walked into the house and told my husband the story.

"So, you went from being heroes to being kidnappers thisfast?"

"WE DID NOT KIDNAP HER! WE WERE TRYING TO KEEP HER SAFE UNTIL WE COULD FIND HER FAMILY!"

Emma, sitting on a kitchen stool, said, "We totally kidnapped her."

Sigh.

No good deed goes unpunished.




21 comments:

  1. Too funny nah not a kidnapping at all - you did the right thing - I would have done the same.

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  2. Look at it this way--now you know your neighbor. Glad it all worked out!

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    1. I chatted briefly with this neighbor when we had the foster pups, and she went to the humane society and asked for one of our fosters' siblings (there were 4 that didn't go in foster care) and was told they all went to the rescue group, so she picked this pup instead.

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  3. They should fence their yard and put tags on her. Silly people!

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  4. Tags and check out that cough... not to mention kerp a closer eye on her.... sorry... im a little scared for lilly... hope they smarten up.

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    1. She said they were giving the dog medicine. She also said the dog doesn't usually leave the yard, but come on, it's a puppy! At least Lilly knows she has a place to go if she needs to. She wagged her tail at me this afternoon but declined to come over (can't imagine why).

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  5. Now you know your neighbor and probably have a four-footed friend for life, or every time they're out for a walk they'll cross the road to try and avoid that crazy lady that dog-napped their puppy.

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    1. I'm thinking they will try to avoid us. And in all fairness, it was EMMA who wanted to put the dog in the yard and it was EMMA who actually did the deed.

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  6. I like ur daughters name - Emma <3 and God she is so so pretty- touch wood
    and u totally kidnapped the doggy,. hehehe LOL!
    This post lifted my spirits as always. A lovely dog tale Dyanne

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    1. Aww, thanks! We named her before we were even married!
      Gahhhh! I AM a dog napper!
      I've been a little worried about your spirits, Afshan, after your last post. You doing okay?

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  7. Wow, what a story. And what the hell ever happened to people just saying THANK YOU for not ignoring my dog and for being so nice. Something is seriously wrong with people. But not you or Emma. You are good people. You were trying to keep the pup safe, not sell him on the black puppy market. (Bahhahahaaaa - black puppy market...he's a black puppy...I cracked myself up a little there.) I suppose if one of the Rotten Cats got lost (or accidentally kidnaped by well-meaning strangers) I'd want someone to treat them really nice and look for the owners. I'd do the same.

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    1. Black puppy market - BAHAHAHAHA! You're a hoot and a half! The lady was nice about it, but she thought we were a little crazy, I think. WE WERE JUST TRYING TO BE NIIIIICE PEOPLE!!!
      Are the Rotten Cats microchipped? I should have our kitties chipped. After the tornado, so many pets were lost because they were house pets (especially cats) who never went out and didn't have tags. I made our cat in California wear a collar and tag because of earthquakes.

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    2. No, they are not microchipped. They all have tags, but are such divas they refuse to wear them and fight to get them off. I suppose we probably should have had them chipped, but now they're older, I feel like it would be kind of rotten to do. Should've done it when they were kittens and they wouldn't remember it. But when I think about any of them getting lost, it makes me very upset. Probably should...
      Speaking of cats, I just now e-mailed you a cat question.

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  8. "Sort of kidnapped" - seems totally legit. ;)

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    1. When we first put her in the backyard, my husband said "Maybe there will be a reward." After it was all over, he said maybe "Ransom" would be a better word.

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  9. Aw she's SO CUTE! I don't blame you for pup-napping her :) We had a black lab, she looked JUST like that and she LOVED fetch, would play for HOURS. Every lab I've known has acted very puppy-like up until their latest years. They're great family dogs, the kids & dogs can run each other tired!

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    1. Since we put her in jail in our backyard, she probably won't be crossing the street much anymore.

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  10. OK so I'm TOTALLY behind on my blog reading (cannot fathom why!) but I saw this title and knew it would be worth a couple minutes to read.

    And I must confess, I was not disappointed. Thanks for making me laugh out loud. :)

    I don't really know you, Dyanne, but I love you. :)

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    1. That Little Man has been keeping you hopping, hasn't he? Glad you were able to stop by and be a witness to my little felony!

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