Arthur’s very much a dog guy, but since he lives alone and spends his
days in the corporate world, he didn't feel it was right for him to own
one. Then, several years ago, he was seduced by a cat. This
street kitten brushed up against him and meowed her plea for adoption,
for which he fell. He thought it wrong to leave her home alone,
so went to the local cat-rescue place and adopted a second (even more
neurotic than is the norm for cats) cat. Then, out one day
in the country, he came across Mama. She'd been shot, and was
bravely trying to nurture five kittens. Arthur brought the lot
home, fobbed off several of the kittens, ending up with an overall
menagerie of five felines.
Fast forward two years to the present. A pair of feral dogs had
been ranging around Arthur's suburban office. One, a scrawny
full-grown pup, looking to be half collie and half golden retriever,
was, in Arthur's estimation, unlikely to make it through the coming
winter. So he procured a coyote trap, caught her, and brought her
home - provisionally. She was a sweet but shy thing, inviting
love. She had red-orange fur; so... "Pumpkin". Since
he couldn't keep her for the foregoing reasons, and now had the cats as
well, he arranged for a foster home for her with a distant
acquaintance, a coworker who was himself also single but with a
suburban home, fenced-in yard, and a dog of his own.
It was with a heavy heart that Arthur handed her over to the foster
parent mid last week. The very next morning, the FP let Pumpkin
out in his yard with his own dog before leaving for work. This in
spite of admonishments not to do that - to keep her always on a leash
because not only would she not come when called, she'd shy away when
approached (even sometimes from Arthur, though she'd follow him around,
and when secured, was gentle as a lamb. She'd press back against
you when being scratched). But FP knew better. He let her
loose in his yard and when it was time to go to work he couldn't
retrieve her. So he simply left, figuring the yard was fenced so
it'd be OK. When he got back, she was gone.
Arthur's heavy heart was now broken. He couldn't sleep for
worrying about her, took the next day as vacation, went out to the FP's
neighborhood, and nailed up and passed out posters with pictures to
everyone he could think of: to all the vets in the area, the
SPCA, the cops, firemen, etc.
Arthur had had a microchip implanted in her (as well as a lot of other
$tuff done when he found her). Though she wasn't yet licensed,
and her collar wasn't tagged, there was therefore hope. But
sadly, no responses. For Arthur it was like losing a child.
Then, two days later, on 11/6/10 - Jubilation City! Arthur found his dog.
The foster home from which Pumpkin ran off was quite near the Hamilton
county border. When that geographical fact was pointed out
to Arthur, he spent the weekend duplicating his previous quest, this
time in the neighboring Butler county. And sure enough, he found
Pumpkin in its animal shelter. She'd been busted quite near the
FP's house, by a fireman who was actually a neighbor of the FP.
Arthur was given two citations for (a) allowing an unlicensed dog to
(b) run loose, and was ordered to appear in court (on his birthday!),
but he didn't mind a bit, and anyhow he talked his way out of it.
He'll probably now accede to fate and find a way to keep her. I
suspect we'll have "shared custody".
There's a practical reason for my recounting all this. When they
first got her, the animal shelter wanded the dog twice, but didn't
picked up the chip. With Arthur watching, they wanded her a third
time. Same result. Either the chip had failed or had
migrated to an unlikely region of her body. If you have a pet
with an implant, next time you go to the to the vet, you might want to
have the chip checked.
All this happened a few days before Arthur's 50th birthday, inpiring this card [CLICK].
