Lil Buddy

So last night as I am approaching our driveway I see a car pulled over on the side of the road and a woman in a business outfit in our yard, odd.  As I pulled closer I saw what she was doing, trying to corral a small dog in our yard.

After I parked I came over.  She asked if I knew whose dog this was which I didn’t.  She said she stopped when she saw the dog walking across the road, she is a fellow animal lover.  She had been trying to get the dog to come to her for quite awhile but he wouldn’t.  He was acting very fearful.

I thought I would give it a try.  I motioned for the dog to come over, which appeared to be a Jack Russell mix (not fixed, no tags).  Surprisingly he came in my direction and let me pet him.  However when I tried to actually grab him he yelped almost like he was in pain and ran away. After that the trust appeared to be broken, he would not allow myself or the woman to get within 10 feet of him.

I heard our dogs going nuts inside seeing me interact with another dog.  I told the woman I would let my dogs out in the yard, perhaps that would be of interest to the little guy.  My plan worked, as soon as Nicki and Sadie came out into the yard the little guy shot over to the fence and started a sniff exchange.

I came over to the corner of the fence with treats in my hand.  I called Sadie down to me and our guest followed.  When he got to me I gave him some treats which he gobbled up.  Then instead of trying to grab him right away and petted him a bit which he seemed to like and then I picked him up.  I expected him to carry on but he was fine this time.

I carried him over and put him inside the fence where he immediately was greeted by our dogs. All three got along fine and started running around and playing.  So now I went back to talk to the woman about a game plan.  She was the one that stopped so she said she would be willing to take Lil Buddy to get him scanned for a chip although I could tell she would have preferred if I handled it since the dog seemed to warm up to me and not her.  Plus she said she has some small dogs at home that aren’t very good with other animals. So I told her I would handle it, we have the big fenced in yard to contain him and I could try to call DAS to see if they could send someone out to get him.

Unfortunately I called DAS 10 minutes after they closed.  Their message said to call the sheriff’s office if we had an animal emergency.  Well this was hardly an emergency but I called anyway just to find out how it worked.  The dispatcher said if we wanted she could send a deputy out and then he could make arrangements to have someone from DAS come out.  Well Lil Buddy certainly didn’t appear to be a troublemaker so I told the dispatcher we will just take care of it the next day.

It was funny how quickly Lil Buddy went from being scared of me to being my lil buddy.  He was all wags and dog smiles.  Sadie of course was anxious to initiate play with her new friend.  The two of them had fun chasing each other around.  I sent Ali a text message with a picture of our guest.  I then talked to her on the phone and told her about the situation.  Ali wasn’t thrilled to have to deal with yet another stray dog situation. It breaks her heart to see dogs on the loose that are owned by people that generally don’t seem to care much about their well being.

I figured Lil Buddy was hungry so I brought some food out for him.  I had to break up a fight when Sadie and Lil Buddy had a food stand off.  In the blink of an eye Sadie had Lil Buddy pinned to the ground with her teeth showing and Lil Buddy was crying.  I immediately broke it up and scolded Sadie.  Within 30 seconds all was forgotten and they were playing again.

I spent almost the entire evening outside with the three dogs.  I did not want to have Lil Buddy in the house in case he had fleas or worse since I didn’t know exactly how long he has been out there.  I set up the small shed as a make shift dog bachelor pad complete with food, water, a dog bed and night light.  Every time I would go inside Lil Buddy would jump and paw frantically at the pool cage screen to join us.  Thank goodness his nails were not sharp enough to rip the screen.

Once Ali got home I introduced her to Lil Buddy, she immediately commented how cute he was and said we should keep him, already knowing what my answer would be, NO.  We need another dog like a hole in the head, not to mention a Jack Russell that is very high energy and demands near constant attention. 

So originally the plan was to drop Lil Buddy off at domestic animal services today.  The negative of doing that is if his owners don’t claim him and he wouldn’t be adopted for some reason they put the animal to sleep eventually.  Now I have no doubt Lil Buddy would get adopted.  Many people prefer little dogs, especially all the condo dwellers that aren’t able to have anything else but a small dog.  His cuteness should ensure a quick adoption.

Well when Ali posted about Lil Buddy on FB, one of her Humane Society contacts indicated he would try to get Buddy into there instead which is no kill.  Normally the Humane Society only takes dogs that are turned in by their owners, not strays.  So that is even a better option.  Ali will be taking Buddy there later today.

Lil Buddy survived the night in his oversized doghouse just fine and was thrilled to see me this morning.  Before I left for work I petted him one last time, confident he will wind up in a better situation from the one he strayed away from. 

I did make a decent effort to find Lil Buddy’s owners.  I drove around and talked to the neighbors around us and asked if they knew anything about the dog. I even stopped at Crazy Jack’s house. I have not spoken to Jack since our very vocal and nearly physical altercation years ago.  I figured enough time had passed that I could nicely ask Jack if he knew anything about the dog. 

Well Jack didn’t answer the door, his wife did.  In the span of a few minutes I found out that they have been separated for over three years.  I guess that explains why I have hardly seen him in recent years, I had no idea.  I felt bad for his wife as it seems like she has been struggling to stay afloat running the household herself.  I even told her that if she needed something she should feel free to ask me.  She was touched by my offer considering my history with her estranged crazy husband and had tears in her eyes. 

She didn’t know anything about the dog either.

Lost in the Lil Buddy shuffle was the effort I put in yesterday to recover more of Ali’s data.  I used a product called EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard.  This is a pretty cool program that allows you to recover data even after a drive had been formatted or even crashed.  I was able to pull back several hundred of Ali’s data files that weren’t on my back up.  Unfortunately Ali is going to have to go through the files one by one to identify and move them where they belong.  It’s better than the alternative though.  

This weekend has a lot on the docket, including a race to time on the beach tomorrow morning.  Ali is feeling overwhelmed at work right now which never translates into anything good for me.  It seems like there are just a lot of things to get handled.

I did a preliminary route plan for our planned road trip this summer.  I am thinking about heading even further north this time, hitting Mt Rushmore, Montana, Idaho and Yellowstone Park before a swing south to Aspen.  We would need to allocate a lot of time, there will be tons to see and many miles to travel if we elect to go this route.