Gone to the Dogs

People who dump dogs and then leave them in a remote rural wilderness to starve to death, be ripped apart by coyotes, run over, or (at best) to survive long enough to go feral ... these people should be dragged out of their homes and horsewhipped out of town.

This evening late I found a half-starved young pup of maybe 2 months old. Hard to tell how old he is exactly but he's in that gangly puppy stage. You know, just when they stop being such a cute puppy and start looking like a goofy dog. Giant paws, long legs and big ears. For many people that's prime dumping age.

He has been living in a culvert up the road from our house. He looks like he's been out there for maybe a week or so but that's hard to tell. For all I know he was starved before he was dumped. I don't know where he's been getting water. The creek that culvert serves has been dry for a month and the nearest pond is about a half-mile away from where I found him. Might be some stagnant pools up under the road or something. I'm not sure.

He came right to me when I called to him, dragging himself along and wagging his little tail. In the truck he promptly fell asleep in the lap. No growling or biting at all. He ate a little bit of dog food with a fresh egg cracked over it and drank a lot of water, then went to sleep again. He perked up a little bit when the kids came out to meet him. He's known kids before. He went nuts when he saw them. The good kind of nuts where the dog rolls over and over on your feet wanting to be pet. The cats then came out and one by one they introduced him to the Claw of Discipline. Just a few boundary-setting nose swats to let the puppy know where he stands in the household.

He doesn't like Sam the Farm Dog though. He growled and snarled and freaked out in terror at poor Sam's approach. Sam's quite happy to have a new friend but the puppy may have been ran off from one of the nearby ranches where they keep big dogs. That may have been what forced him to retreat into that culvert.

So we have a new dog now. Sam has a friend (once they get used to it) and we'll see how this works. We haven't had a lot of luck with dogs in the past two years. Still, this little guy's luck improved about 300% when he stuck his head up out of the culvert as I drove by. I may try to find him another farm home here in the community or we may end up keeping him.