Breaking my heart

Saturday evening, while Ms. P and I were draped over various bits of furniture, trying to keep down the head-cold-induced moaning, the lovely young man who mows our lawn showed up with a dog in tow.

He'd found the dog wandering around the neighborhood, collared but without tags. His mom wouldn't let him bring the dog home, even to try to find owners, and he didn't want to take him to a shelter, so we stashed him in our fenced-in backyard and proceeded to put the word out.

We posted to Craigslist and our neighborhood listserve. We trolled lost and found websites. We faxed a Found Animal Report to Animal Management, so if someone called looking for the dog, they'd know where to go next. This morning Ms. P took him to our vet to see if he's microchipped (he's not). I called around to all the vets in the area to leave a description and our phone number.

This dog is the sweetest dog ever -- friendly, well socialized, gentle-mouthed. When I took him his breakfast this morning, he jumped around in circles when he smelled what I had in the bowl. When we heaved him into the car for the trip to the vet, he stuck his head between our seats and licked my cheek.

It's not much of an exaggeration to say that I, and we, love pretty much all dogs. We're always pointing them out to each other as we drive around, making silly dog-specific cooing noises at them through the windows.

But it's also true that this dog, this is a dog that is Our Kind of Dog -- of lab extraction once upon a generational time, medium-sized, black (and black dogs are really hard to place), gentle, friendly. He is the Ur-Dog for us.

Ms. P has named him (Scooter) at the same time that she says, sobbing, that we can't have a third dog. We're diligently looking for his people, and we really, really hope we can find them. If we can't, and if the neighbor who has expressed a little interest in him doesn't, actually, in the end want him, then we're in a bit of a pickle. He doesn't fit our plans or our budget.

I want to say, "but what life ever does?" Right now we're holding the line while our hearts break, over and over. Wish us finding him his people or, barring that, a home we feel really great about. We need all the help we can get.

Comments

[dale]

Oh.... yes.

[Ms. P]

stay tuned, sports fans....