An Unexpected Visitor

While our members are completing their own rescue stories, I thought that I would share one of my own with you that has occurred in the last 24 hours.

I appreciate it is not a Doxie rescue story, so I hope you will indulge me, as it is in the spirit of rescue

My Step-daughter Alisha (who is currently visiting from England) and I were out walking my 2 dogs

Tia (Japanese Akita) & Mac (Pitbull/Akita Mix)

As we walked down our lane, a little black dog, shot out from one of the
houses across the street and ran towards us. Tia (as she often does) barked at the little dog and after realising that TIa was considerable bigger than she was, quickly retreated back to the house she came from.

Alisha, the dogs and I continued down to the park and had a lovely walk as the day was quite cool. As we entered back into our lane, the little dog was still there, but sitting on the front porch of the ladies house across the street. Unfortunatley, said lady is quite disabled and already has a Chow Chow that is not the most friendly dog, so after I delivered Tia and Mac back home, I decided to go and investigate.

She was sat, quite timid, on the front porch still and hadn’t moved and I could see that she was still very much a baby. I slipped a spare leash onto her and then knocked on the ladies door to ask her if she knew anything about her little visitor.
She told me that the little dog had been hanging around her house and because it was quite hot, had put out water and food for her. Unfortunately she could not invite her in because her dog would be very unhappy.

I asked her is she would like me to take her and try and find out where she had come from, and in a relieved tone of voice said ‘That would be wonderful’

I knocked on a few doors to see if anyone knew where the dog had come from, but no-one had any idea who she was, or who she belonged to.

As she was quite hot and obviously thirsty and hungry, I decided the best thing to do would be to take her home and give her something to eat and drink and then resume the search.

Now I will stop here, because as I was thinking this another thought was going through my head. My Husband would be very unhappy about the idea for 2 reasons. Tia is not known for her friendly demeanor towards other dogs, however anyone that knows Vic, knows that he is a huge softy and would instantly fall in love with her. So as I took her home, he decided it would be best to take the kids out for lunch, so he couldn’t spend any time with her

Before he managed to escape, however I stole away to Hualapai Veterinary Centre to see if she had a chip as she didn’t have a collar on or any tags to identify where she came from. The nurses all loved her and agreed with me that she should not be handed in to the pound or animal control. The vet too a quick look over her and told us that she was healthy enough, but quite dehydrated, and estimated her age at approximately 2 months old.

He scanned he but there was no chip. It was so sad to think that such a gorgeous little thing like this was not well enough taken care of to even have a micro-chip. She was so friendly and loving and just seemed so glad to have someone to play with and take care of her.

Realising that she was going to be staying with us for a few days, I swung by Petsmart to pick up some puppy food and a collar for her and called my husband to tell him the news. He was not happy, only because we have tried fostering before and that’s how we ended up adopting Mac, he cannot say no any dog. Regardless I put my foot down and said that we were taking ownership of the problem, because if it were one of our dogs, we would like to think that someone would do the same for us.

So she arrived home.
Tia and Mac were a little apprehensive at the little bundle of black fur that was squeaking with excitement to meet her new friends. She settled in very quickly and after eating a hearty meal and having a brush she found her spot very quickly next to Vic on the couch!!

Tia and Mac had a good sniff (it was like a sniff train going around the kitchen counter for a while) and were eventually properly introduced.

We posted information all over the neighbourhood and on-line – but so far we have not had any calls about her. Its a real shame, but at the same time, I am quite glad, because she seems to have already fit in as a member of my pack and has been happily rolling around the floor with Mac for most of the day. The funny thing is, he is quite happy to let her pull at his face and his tail and his legs (Not so much the other parts though ) because he now has another pup to play with.

I spoke to my great friend Sam (Vegas Rock Dog) about it and she said, as I suspected, that someone probably dumped her, as any reasonable family would have posted information on lamp-posts etc to try and find her.
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So one mans loss is (at least for now) is our gain. The kids and hubby decided to call her Missy, (I wanted to call her Stella, I am hoping I may still get my way lol) because she is a right little cheeky Miss sometimes. Jumping around on everything soft, including the other dogs and all the family and using them all a chew toys. However she has found her place in the heirarchy very quickly and is a very happy, playful normal puppy.

I hope this story inspires more of you to send in your stories about the dogs that you have rescued.

Please send them directly to me on suzanneburkeconsultant@googlemail.com