Lost

The other day shayla & karen were finishing up our walk. We'd done our exercises beforehand so we were almost done. It was hot, still, and just a bit humid. We'd taken an alternate route, much to karen's enjoyment. One of the good things about the way we walked that day is the water fountain, just at the half-way point of our hour's walk. Shayla always makes sure to douse her face & neck areas with it when she comes to it.

As we began to pass one of the nearby schools shayla felt a soft bump hit the back of her foot. And here's this dirty, fuzzy, brown/black/white puppy, no bigger than shayla's two hands together. And very friendly, the little bugger kept licking shayla's neck the whole time she was being held. No collar, nobody nearby, quite obviously it'd been lost for a day or two. Further investigation proved it to be female. Karen & shayla being the girls that we are, of course, took to the pup immediately.

Leaving it there on the street would have been totally out of the question. As small as the pup was she would have been flattened in an instant if she'd wandered out into the road. And the results would have been predictable if the pup stumbled across one of the local raccoons or skunks. So what to do with the little scruff-ball?

Leave it there to be injured?
No way.

Take it home & beg Master to let us keep it?
Bad idea. In a household with cats? He'd have been Very Displeased at very suggestion. Not to mention that shayla's not got a clue how to properly train a dog. Shayla's a poor one at figuring out what breeds a mixed dog is, but she could tell that the pup would grow to be a large dog when she reached full growth.

Take it home so that we could later take it to an animal shelter?
Oh, it was tempting, awfully tempting. But Master'd worked late the previous night, & was still sleeping. Shayla didn't dare wake him up by bringing a stray puppy home & promising to take it to the nearby pound as soon as possible. That would have been almost as bad as begging to keep it.

So there was only one thing to do. Shayla's work wasn't too far away, and shayla's boss is an animal lover. Karen stayed in the public area while shayla brought the pup into the office. Carmen, shayla's supervisor, took right to it. There was a toss-up over who at work would be able to take the pup, Carmen, or one of shayla's co-workers. So we left the pup there while Carmen and Sheila worked it out.

Shayla checked back with Carmen a few hours later. The pup'd been fed & watered. Very well-fed, Carmen said she'd not seen a dog eat like that before. And happily ensconsed at Carmen's feet on an old shirt of hers, it had been sleeping for the past two hours. It turned out that Carmen would take the pup home for her 15-year old son, who's been wanting a dog anyway.

The rest of the day seemed to go very good for shayla. It's nice how one small kindness done seems to make the rest of the day seem that much better for a person.

shayla