What would you do? This evening I was at the grocery store and as I was leaving with my groceries, heard a couple of guys talking about a dog wandering around the parking lot. One of them said "he looks lost, I hope somebody didn't just drop him off, he's a good lookin' dog". I looked around and spotted him a couple of lanes away, looking nervous and jittery.

I got my groceries into my car, then carefully walked over to the dog, where he was now munching on some what looked like left-over Chinese food that someone had dumped on the pavement. It was right next to a big pick-up and I didn't want the little ol' guy to get hit. Of course, I say little because my own dogs are so big. This one was a full grown, fairly old chocolate lab. His chin is all white, so maybe middle aged, whatever that is in lab years.

I walked up to him and crouched down and he kinda jumped, but he realised I wouldn't hurt him I guess, and he followed me over to my car. I dialed my cell phone to try and call James, but as we all know, he's half deaf, and was in the basement on his computer so didn't hear the phone. ugh...need to get a phone in the basement...anyway, so I called the animal control, whose number I have on my speed dial list on my cell phone. Why? Because there are so many dang strays wandering around this town! They're closed on weekends, so they have the no-kill shelter number on their answering machine. I called them, and they don't come and pick up strays, so she gave me the number for public safety. I called them, and there were 2 cruisers there within a minute and a half!

Luckily I had some Scooby Snacks in my car and this little ol' guy seemed rather hungry. He may have just wandered off from home, but he seemed confused and lost and really really hungry. Or he may just have bad manners which is why he nearly took my fingers off when I offered the biscuits. ;-)

For whatever reason, when the two male officers approached him, he growled and tried to run away. I had a hold of his collar though, and he happily followed me to the open door of the cruiser and hopped in. I felt so bad when I started to walk away to my car, his face was so sad like "hey, aren't you coming with me?" *sigh*

I gave the officer my phone numbers and told them to call me if no one claims this guy. I'd have brought him directly home if I thought George and Bruno wouldn't beat him up, but if we bring another dog home, they'd have to be acclimated to each other on neutral ground first. He's little, and old, he may not be able to defend himself well enough against these two beasts!

Hopefully he just wandered off and someone is out there looking for him. But for tonight and tomorrow night, he's at the animal control shelter, waiting for the Monday shift (they have weekend shifts to care for the animals, just no administrators to take lost dog reports or post found dog notices.)

In the meantime, when I get to work on Monday I'll put an ad in the paper (I get free classified ads) that I've found him and he's at the shelter. If no one claims him, I guess I will have to help find him a home. I feel kinda responsible. But I just couldn't leave him out there wandering around lonely and hungry, to possibly be killed by a car or shot at (which is fairly common around here).

What would you do?  ¶ 8:28 PM