my calling in life

I'm taking a quick break from the describing myself posts because I had a laugh out loud while by myself moment today. I'll start at the beginning.

I was walking my dog this morning and saw a tiny dog on the other side of the street, so I walked over to look at its collar and hopefully return it to its home. Well, just as I got to the dog, these people walked out of their house. I was relieved that they were coming out because I assumed this was the dog's owners. Nope. They said they knew the owners though and I thought they would bring it back to her (I found out the dog's name was Daisy) home. Well, instead, I had to pick up the pup while holding my dog's leash and walk with the girl who knew exactly where the people lived. Daisy's very diverse family (an African American woman, a white woman, a baby, and a few little girls) didn't know poor little Daisy had gotten out. How would they? Their house was full of people. "Mama," as the eldest woman called the much younger lady in the kitchen, didn't even move from her place and asked me to put Daisy inside for her. So I did and we were on our way.

Well, you might be thinking, this is a strange story of returning a dog. Nope. This isn't the thing that got me to laugh to myself. An even stranger returning a dog story came to my mind.

About a year ago, Derek and I were walking Soco around the neighborhood when we saw a puppy Golden Retriever. This poor puppy was very close to a super busy street, so we went over to it to look at its collar. No address. So we went door to door to ask people if this was their dog and of course no one answered. So we ended up back at the house that the puppy was closest to when we saw it. And there was still no answer to our knocks. So, we went to the backyard to see if there was any evidence of a missing puppy. We saw brand new looking dog bowls and toys and finally a part of the fence that was lifted up just big enough for a puppy to get through.

We decided to knock on the door again before putting the dog in the backyard. There was a car there, so we thought maybe someone was home, but no answer. So we put the dog inside the fence and Derek found a milk crate on the side of the house. He gave it to me to put in front of the lifted part of the fence so hopefully the dog wouldn't get out again. Just as I was creeping through these people's backyard with a milk crate, the homeowner walks out the backdoor.

So I said, "Your dog got out and we're just putting it back," as their dog stands there INSIDE their backyard safely and I'm holding a milkcrate creeping through their backyard on the outside of the fence! He says, "Ummm, ok? Thanks?" Grabs his puppy and goes inside.

Derek and I DIED laughing. It totally looked like we were trying to steal their dog using their milkcrate.

So people, the lesson here is to always put your address and/or phone number on your dog's collar! Of the 4 dogs I've returned to their owners, ONE of them had addresses on their collar! Phone numbers don't always suffice either, because when you're on vacation in California and you find a dog, the owner doesn't always pick up their cell phone for a Michigan phone number. Yep. Learned that the hard way too!