Ike came scratching at the front door early Sunday morning. He was busy trekking up and down the street looking for fun things to do and I guess he decided that our house looked warm and inviting. It was La Niña who first noticed him; and then Stryder and I spent a good 20 minutes after that trying to catch him because I was afraid he was going to get hit by a car.
Eventually he came close enough for me to whip my hand out and grab his harness; after this I endured a few moments of frenzied biting because the poor little guy was really scared. However, compared to Stryder and Kima’s play biting this little guy’s jaws did nothing more than tickle my arm.
Ike spent a few scared moments in our backyard while I tried to find his owners. The tag on his collar had a phone number and address but it was so worn that I could only read a few numbers. I walked up and down the street, made phone calls and knocked on as many doors as I could. No one knew Ike so I had no choice but to phone the city.
While I canvassed the neighbourhood, little Ike stood in the backyard shaking until that very magical moment when he met La Niña. From his arrival in the backyard on she repeatedly insisted that she go outside and see him. dP brought her outside so she could see the “doggie” and when Ike saw her he transformed from “scared dog” to “relaxed and playful dog.” He began bouncing around the backyard and used every opportunity he could to give La Niña kisses.
La Niña and Ike spent the next hour in the backyard running, playing, chasing balls and giving/receiving lots of hugs and kisses. When it was time for Ike to go home (the city found his owner) La Niña asked: “Where is Ike going?” When we told La Niña that Ike was going home she said: “La Niña want to go home too.”
Awwwww… that’s what I said after reading this post. I was thinking for a few moments as I was reading through, that you might be taking in another dog.. glad Ike made it back to his home. Do you know how far away his owners were from your home?
Hey Bob,
The little guy had three tags on his collar, a City of Calgary tag (which was nearly brand-new), his rabies vaccination tag, and a tag made by his owners with phone number on one side and address on the other. The third tag was really old with the outer quarter inch all worn away. This meant that the phone number on the one side had illegible first and last digits. (No way we were going to dial 79 permutations of the number. – Calgary is growing so fast that every digit except 3 and 4 are in use as a first number in a phone number, as far as I know.)
Maybe Ike was afraid of Stryder because he is so much bigger. Did Ike have a chip for the city to scan? Nice haircut Makenna.
I was just wondering, if you couldn’t read the information on his tag then how could the city. Was there a registration number or something. If it was such a privacy issue, why would there even be a phone number or address on the tag?
OK. That explains things.
To answer questions:
Shawna, they don’t give out that information for privacy reasons. I’ll certainly be on the lookout for him, though — so if there is a next time I can take him directly home.
Bob, dogs don’t generally notice each other’s size. I brought Stryder along because Ike kept coming over to say hi to Stryder. I don’t know if he had a chip — it was licensed so there was no need to check.