Lost and Found

In the dog world, apparently our house is advertised as being a fun and safe place to hang out. We have loads of tasty treats, chicken/lamb water that flows in an endless river into drinking bowls, t-bone steak bones for chewing and two very playful friends to hang out with. I say this because it seems that more and more wayward doggies seem to find their way onto our doorstep.

A month ago a friendly shepherd came into our garage to say hello. He played with the dogs while we tried to find its owner. The dog had no collar but I thought I’d recognized it from down the street. I wasn’t sure which house it belonged to so dP and La Niña went for a walk and started knocking on the neighbour’s doors. They found the owner pretty quickly and all the dogs got a good play session out of it.

A week ago — at the end of one of our dog walks — a little schnauzer happily came over to us and then hopped into my car when it was time for us to leave the park. He was a friendly little guy who seemed incredibly happy to be coming home with us. The dog had a rabies tag with a getmeHOME.ca membership, however when we phoned the number attached it was out of service. With the help of another dog walker we canvassed the neighbourhood and then put up signs at the park in hopes that the owner would be out looking for him. Sure enough the owner called and was franticly looking for the dog. Honestly, if the getmeHOME.ca membership had been updated or the collar had a name tag with phone number on it the little guy would have been home before dinner instead of three hours later.

Yesterday a little fluffy black adventurer strolled up to the front door. At first I thought it was Ike coming over for a visit (we’ve since gotten to know Ike’s owner because she lives just down the street) — however, this dog was a schnauzer named Shystie — a very puffy mini schnauzer. Again, we phoned the number on the tag — and again it was out of service. After fruitless searching we phoned the city and they managed to track down the owners. It’s a good thing because I always get sad when I see the city’s listing of stray dogs. I wish I could take them all home and give them t-bone steak bones to chew on.

I’m guessing that it’s Stryder and Kima who are sending out beacon announcements about the good food, great fun and excellent company — like they’re advertising a doggie daycare. We don’t mind it when dogs come over; however, I’d recommend that owners register their pets on an online service like PetLynx or pick up a name tag with a current phone number on it. That way when dogs show up at on our doorstep we can get them home again quickly without having to involve the city.