Outposted by William Beem
on May 7, 2009 1:51:04 PM
This morning I came home from the gym and found a stray dog wandering down the street. By the time I parked in my garage, she noticed me and decided to make a new friend. Although I've lived in my neighborhood more than a decade, I didn't recognize this dog at all. Unfortunately, she didn't have a collar or any way for me to identify her. I couldn't tell if she was from someone in my neighborhood, or perhaps one of the other nearby neighborhoods.
At this point, I had a decision to make. I could let her continue wandering around, or I could take her in and try to find her owner. If she was turned out by an uncaring owner, the latter option may have left me with a new dog in the house. I already have two dogs, and recently suffered a loss of my oldest dog a month ago.
While I had mixed feelings about the possibility of getting another dog, I'm not opposed to adopting a stray if the personalities don't clash with the current dogs. In fact, one of my dogs was a stray who just showed up at my parent's door one day and decided to live there (we never could find the owner and suspect they may have mistreated the dog).
Letting her wander around just wasn't going to cut it for me. Even though I'd never seen her before, I could envision her getting hit by a car, going hungry, or some other unpleasant fate. The first thing I did was put down a bowl of food, which she ignored. I took that as a promising sign that she wasn't long gone from her home.
She got along fine with my dogs, though my youngest one was clearly getting insecure about this interloper trying to get my attention. He's used to being the attention-hog in the house, and he really put it on during her visit here.
At lunch, I checked the neighborhood for signs or some people looking for a dog, but didn't find anything. Then I decided to call Seminole County Animal Services to see if anyone had filed a report about a missing dog. The voice menu system there seems a bit confusing. I followed the menu to file a report about a Found Dog, but all it did was play a recording and never offered a choice to leave a message about the dog. That's when dialing 0 is your friend.
I spoke to a pleasant woman who was taking down my information about the stray dog when it turned out the owner was down there to file a report about her lost dog. Perfect timing. I spoke with the owner and learned she lived just a few houses down from me. They're new to the neighborhood and her husband was working from home (so do I). She called him and we met outside to reunite them. He was really happy to see her again and relieved to get her home before the kids came back from school.
Fortunately, everything worked out for this family. The dog's name is Bella. Very sweet & playful, and she had her big day out.
If you ever happen to run into a stray dog, please consider contacting Animal Services. There may well be someone frantically trying to find their wayward pet. If you don't want to keep the dog, then Animal Services will send someone out for a pickup.
If you own a dog, please make sure they wear a collar with an identification tag. It can make for a quicker reunion between you and the one you love.
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