Buddy

Well, shame on me, I just realized that I haven't posted in over a week. I didn't think it had been that long. I've been keeping up fairly well with my Bloglines; I read, but I don't always comment. Sometimes by that late at night I'm just too tired to think coherently, much less leave a comment in legible English. I've been Christmas shopping. It's 90 % done now. And wrapped. (It's okay. I can hear you all moaning out there. I've never been this far ahead of the game in my life. Probably never will be again.) But I haven't been knitting much, which means that the gift knitting is sorely behind schedule. And then, of course, there was Thanksgiving. I've survived nicely, thank you. The garage fridge is full of leftovers, but once the college kids go back home with their coolers packed, I probably won't have anything left.

Anyways, I have a story - and a rant - to share with you all tonight. I would like you all to meet Buddy.

Just around the corner from my workplace, the local county animal control has a holding pen for animals picked up by the Sheriff's Office during non-office hours. Unfortunately, I frequently see abandoned or runaway dogs in there when I go to work in the morning. Lori, the animal control officer, will come in as soon as possible to move the dogs to the county shelter. But she is always open to having "foster care" provided to the animals instead of taking them to "the pound" while the owners are sought. On Wednesday morning I saw this young collie in the pen. I watched him when I could during the morning hours and saw that he seemed to be very quiet, friendly, and well-behaved. When I saw Lori, I asked about the dog and we went out together to visit with him. He was young and had obviously been cared for, but he had no collar or microchip to identify him. I called Joe to come by and he visited some with the dog as well, and as you can obviously see we decided to "foster" him at least for the weekend.

The kids decided to call him Buddy. They have been walking him practically to death over the last three days, and have played plenty of fetching games. Buddy has obviously been living in a family and has been well trained. He is very quiet in the yard and in the house; he never touched the turkey carcass on the kitchen counter; he doesn't raid the garbage. He sits and waits patiently to be fed. We gave him a bath on Wednesday before letting him in the house; he didn't like it but he didn't growl or snap. He is completely housebroken and lets you know politely when he wants to go out. At first he wanted to chase the cats, but now he is behaving much better with them and it seems as if he would like to make friends. The cats are having very little of it so far, but at least there aren't any more wild chases through the house.

Buddy is also rather thin. Under his coat (we think there's a bit of German Shepherd in his past) his ribs are like a washboard. And he is scared to death of getting into a car.

Lori tells me that no one has called looking for Buddy. No one has placed an ad in the paper's lost and found. It frequently happens around here that dogs are abandoned by their owners when it becomes time to move. We know that Buddy has lived with a family. Someone has certainly taken the time to teach him good manners. He is very friendly and affectionate. But he didn't have a collar on. And he's too thin for just having gotten lost a few days ago. And he's so terrified of getting in cars. As if he had been placed in one and driven far out into the countryside away from home and dumped.

I probably do not need to tell you how this makes us feel. How can anyone spend that much time with an animal who has obviously had plenty of manners taught to him, and then simply dump him like a sack of garbage? Does it make you sick, too? With a little bit (or a lot) of righteous anger thrown in for good measure?

Buddy will be spending the rest of the weekend with us. The cats will have to suck it up. As of Monday, if no one comes looking for him, he is considered officially abandoned and can be adopted. Will we keep him if that happens? I believe we can keep him on a "foster care" basis for a while longer than that. Time will tell. In the meantime, we have been taking Buddy for short rides in the car, coming straight back to the house after just a few minutes. We're hoping that this shows him that he's not being "dumped" again.

So much for now. I'll wish you all goodnight. I'm going to get my shoes and jacket and take Buddy for another walk.