I rescued a dog today!
Not like adoption, like a rescue!
She was limping around the Mapco parking lot with a big gash in her back right leg. She looked pittiful, with this sad pleading look and a low, steady wag of her tail. I petted her when I came out, thinking she belonged to somebody. But no one said anything, and people kept coming in and out like normal. I looked around, and then back at the dog, who was looking at me.
So I asked the clerk at the gas station if he knew whose dog it was. He said he didn't but he wished he did. It had been sitting in front of the double entrance doors and somebody had hit it real hard with the door by accident making it scream. The clerk said it had been there since 5:30 that morning. So I went back out and met the dog who seemed to be waiting for me, and when I opened my car door to get out my phone the little dog jumped right in my floor board!
"Well, okay," I said. The dog stared up at me like, "I'm sorry to be so pushy, but I need some help."
It was a really nice dog. It looked so sad. So I sat down in my car with the dog, and tried to call the Animal Hospital next door to the Mapco. Coincidence? I think not. But they still wouldn't take her. They said I'd have to pay for her to get treated. I explained the situation, but they didn't care. They told me to taker her to the shelter on Harding.
The shelter is a nice way of saying THE POUND. I've been there only a few times and every time I go I can't help but cry because the poor things look so pitiful. They get euthanized if they stay there too long. Still, it was 7:30, I was supposed to be at work, and I had no other place to drop off a dog without taking him to my house and possibly infecting my own dog with who-knows-what.
We drove to the pound. I called my boss. The whole way there, the dog lay curled up on my backseat. She had jumped back there while I was talking to the lady at the animal hospital. She looked up at me with such sad eyes.
"You're having a rough time, huh?" She blinked. "You'll be all right soon. I'm gonna take you somewhere you'll have a place to sleep and someone will fix your leg back there. You'll be just fine." The dog put her head down and breathed out.
I can't imagine what it would be like to ride up to some unfamiliar place, be let out, and then watch the car that got you there drive away into the distance. Did they even say goodbye? Were there kids somewhere missing their little black and brown dog? It looked like she'd been well cared for. She was a little bit chunky. She wasn't afraid of people. She had jumped straight into my car. That made me think she'd been in somebody's car plenty of times.
When we pulled up at the pound, I turned around in my seat. She was still laying down, but her eyes and ears were alert. She knew we had reached our destination.
"Well. Somebody will adopt you. You'll get a new Mommy. One that's nice, like me. Somebody will definitely want you. You're so cute and little. And you're so good with people. You're a little lovebug. Like Boo. You even look a little like Boo."
Boo was my mom's dog. He could pull the same innocent expressions that this little dog was pulling then. The only difference was that Boo was really a hyperactive monster-dog with extremely bad breath.
"Okay, now. I'm gonna go inside and see if I can find somebody to help us, okay? I'll be right back."
I got out of the car, reassuring the little dog that I'd be right back. I do that same thing when I leave my dog alone in my room at home to go to the bathroom, or when I leave on my way to work.
And that was pretty much it. A big guy wearing a police uniform with an Animal Control patches came out to get the dog out of my back seat. She cried a little bit when he picked her up, but it was because of her back leg. The guy took my name, phone number, and address. I told him where I found the dog, and he put her into a big kennel cage. I waved to the dog shaped shadow inside on my way out the door.
.................
Now I can't stop thinking about the dog. She'll be up for adoption come Saturday. That'll be four days from when she was brought to the shelter. They'll test her temperment, and she'll be all set for viewing on Saturday from 10 to 4pm.
I'm going to see her. I want to make sure they're treating her leg. You know, because... she was so sweet. I don't want anything bad to happen to her. If she gets close to euthanasia I'll just have to find a real rescue group that can place her out, or adopt her myself. We could foster her until someone adopted her, most definitely. Right? I mean... I'm not crazy for thinking about her this much, am I?
Do YOU need a dog? If so, her ad is already up on the Animal Control Shelter's website. Below is her link.
http://www.petharbor.com/pet.asp?uaid=NASH.A077399
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