Last night while I had my dogs out front for their before bed visit to the grass, I could hear a dog barking. Not so unusual, but this dog kept up a constant, rhythmic blast of very unhappy and slightly panicked barks. I wouldn’t have thought much of it, except Dyson kept looking up the street and growling, and I thought I recognized the bark as belonging to a little white dog down the way, but she never makes that much noise. I was out with my guys for a good 15 minutes, and still, the barking. Ok, something is wrong. I called Josh and asked him to walk down with me to check it out, imagining some poor dog hung up on something, or an owner in trouble and the dog trying to get someone’s attention - Lassie like, if you will.
We went down to where the little white dog lives, I don’t know her name, and her house was all dark and quite. One more building up and we found the source of the noise, a very sad, very cold little dachshund sitting on his “Wipe Your Paws” mat by the front door. He was so glad to see someone, we rang the bell and knocked, no one home. He must have gotten out, or something, and no one was home. We took him home and returned to his house with a note, letting them know their dog was ok and to call us. This time the lights were on. Turns out, his name was Jack, and he’d gone out to potty, and mom thought he went in when she picked up after him. Guess he didn’t go in, but no one noticed and the whole family went to bed.
Poor Jack, can you imagine? If I hadn’t heard him, he’d have been out there all night, freezing his short little legs off. He must have wondered what in the world, why am I outside by myself? Do me a favor, and check to make sure your dog is where it belongs before you go to bed. I can’t even imagine. Poor little guy. Guess not everyone sleeps with their dog under their blankets - I’d surely notice if one of mine wasn’t in bed.
It’s so hard to train people to take proper care of their dogs, it’s a wonder dogs put up with us…
Posted on January 14th, 2008 by michelle
Filed under: Not my dogs, Random run ins
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