Well she was lost, that is.

On Tuesday I was driving around near my parent’s house with my niece when all of a sudden this small dog came darting out in front of my car.  It ran back and forth in the street looking very scared and confused.  My niece and I were freaking out as we watched it run down the street dodging cars.  I was beginning to think that I was going to witness this thing get run over.  I decided that we’d have to catch the dog to keep it from getting hit.  So we drove very slowly along side it until is ran down a less busy street.  My niece got out and walked toward it, but it continued to run away.  She bent down, crouched near a curb and put her hand out and eventually the dog ran over to her.  By the time I parked my car and came over she was holding the little dog and walking back to the car.

Now we were stuck with this dog.  The dog was wearing a blue harness but didn’t have a collar or a leash.   Now, my niece and I are both kind of homeless at the moment and were staying at my parent’s house for a couple nights.  So we really couldn’t just keep the dog.  I knew my parents wouldn’t want me to bring this dog to their house (having remembered the numerous times they yelled at me for bringing home stray dogs when I was a kid).  So we drove around and asked everyone we saw if they recognized the dog.  We felt a little creepy, like stereotypical child predators using the cute lost dog trick, so we decided to only ask adults.  No one recognized it though.  We had to take it back to my parent’s house.

I ran in the house, grabbed one of my dog’s leashes (she was very excited thinking I was going to take her for a walk), a bowl and a handful of dog food and ran back outside.  We gave the dog some water and a little food and put it back in the car with us.  Next stop was the local dog groomers and vet to see if they ever saw the dog and maybe knew its owners.  Again, we were out of luck, they never saw the dog before either.  The vet scanned the dog for a chip, but didn’t find anything.  I was beginning to dread the thought of having to take the dog to the animal shelter.  My niece convinced me to keep the dog all day and try walking it around the neighborhood in the evening when more people would be home from work.

So the dog spent most of the day tied to a tree in front of my parent’s house.  I would have let it loose in the back yard, but my dog Sequel would have eaten it.  Around 6:00pm I took it back where I found it and started walking it around again.  Still, no one recognized it.  Finally, I found a flyer for a lost dog that looked like it had just been posted.  The description fit perfectly!  I was so excited.  I called the number and it turns out I was just down their street.  As I walked to the house the dog must have recognized where it was because she started pulling on the leash.

A little boy and his mother met me in the front yard.  I handed over the dog and that was that.  I was so relieved that I found the owners and that I didn’t have to put her in a shelter.

This was a long story that was really just a way for me to validate not studying for the GMATs.  Good deeds are a good excuse, right?  Now what was my excuse for yesterday?