Last Friday - One week after losing Smokey, a mysterious dog shows up. She looks vaguely familiar and I think she's the one that attempted to eat Smokey's food last fall and Smokey gave her a bloody nose for his trouble. While Smokey was here most animals stayed out of the yard. He was a pretty good watch cat -- Rarely getting in fights but often giving warnings to would be trespasser animals.
Now, you might ask if it's possible that this dog was the reason for Smokey's untimely death. While anything is possible, I have to say with complete certainty that she's not. First of all she has no marks on her other than an old scar on her nose (Which is what led me to believe she's the one that Smokey gave the bloody nose to those many months ago.). She's very docile. She doesn't seem to have an interest in cats other than to perk her ears when they fight nearby. The attention she gives to other dogs is mostly an incessant butt sniffing. She's only shown her teeth once to a dog that was a bit jumpy during one of these greetings. And Gerry even picked her up off the ground. If she was going to bitch at anything, it should have been that. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
So this yellow lab/sheppard mix dog shows up last Friday. She's very sweet, I give her a piece of ham and say hello. Then I sit at my kitchen counter with the laptop to do work. She spends the rest of the day looking in at me through the kitchen window while camped out on the front porch. I go out to get the mail and I say hello and pet her. She grants me with some prancing and a wagging tail, followed by a little whimper as I sit back down at the counter and she resumes her vigil. Gerry came home from work around 9:30 p.m. and she greeted him with caution before wagging her tail and giving love. Figuring she must be hungry we give her a slice of pizza and some water. I worry that she's not going to go home and I put a blanket on the front porch because it's a chilly night. Gerry's mom named her Bowser because we thought she was a boy. After further inspection (Privacy be damned.) we find that she's in fact a girl.
Upon awaking the next morning she's still here. We start to call her "Blondie" before I decide that's too superficial sounding and Blondie then becomes "Honey". Honey chases the car as we go to get something to eat on Saturday. It had been raining and we left the garage open with some blankets. We came home around 8pm and Honey wasn't here. At this point we figure she's gone. I close the garage door when heading off to bed. Gerry discovered her on the front porch and opened the garage for her around 1 a.m.
By now we've assumed that she HAS to be a stray. But who would abandon such a beautiful dog. Sunday morning she's still on the front porch. She again chase the car as far as she can before heading back to the driveway. She continues this behavior anytime we both leave. If one of us remains behind she'll stay on the front porch. She knows the meaning of the commands "Sit" and "No", so she's at least had some sort of training. She's friendly and loving. Though she's cautious and a bit skittish over loud unexpected sounds. I could jump to all kinds of conclusions over that trait. Was she abused? She doesn't seem to have any evidence other than being skinny because she'd been abandoned. I ask neighbors and no one seems to know where she came from. So did someone dump her off. Did someone move and leave her behind?
It's now been four days. Honey is still camping out on the front porch with lots of blankets (I gave her the option of the garage but she seems to prefer the front door (Probably because that's the door we use the most). We've continued to feed and give her water and at this point I believe she's officially my responsibility and I plan to make a valiant attempt at finding her a new home and if not, take her to the no-kill shelter. Unfortunately I cannot keep her - aside from just not being ready for another animal in my life after the loses of the past year, there are other extenuating circumstances.
Know anyone looking for a really great dog -- before I become any more attached than I already am???
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