Paying it forward... with patience

Well, it was a dark and stormy... day! The skies just opened up AGAIN several times over the afternoon. Where all this rain is coming from is anybody's guess. Amazing. I think there have only been 6 days this month that have been rain-free, and even then, they weren't without threat of rain. Geesh.

So... off my hubby and I went to pick up Mom and Dad's cats (Tease and Schooner) to take to the vet's for their well-baby check-ups and shots. Of course it rained. A lot. We managed to get in and out of the vet's with just a little rain hitting us. Thankfully, we were able to wait out the torrents inside our dry car. So, the cats were well-behaved and passed their check-ups with flying colours and good behaviour and were trundled back into their carriers and taken home for some TLC. There they proceeded to wind their way back into the hearts of my parents and tell tales of how they were so abused and maltreated, lol. Right. I think the only ones traumatized were my parents. These are their babies I was taking to get stung with a needle.

After a quick visit, hubby and I headed off shopping and home. Of course the skies opened up again with a huge dumping of rain that made visibility almost non-existent. We were on the road toward home when all of a sudden I thought I saw some movement in the road ahead (maybe just a reflection of lights in a puddle?) and the vehicles in front of us started throwing on brakes with no warning. What?! C'mon, it's raining and awful, but pull over to wait it out. But look, there's a black and white mop standing in front of a car. Then it slowly moved and was looking for something, but nobody was stopping to see what they could do. The "mop" moved onto the median and we realized it was a bedraggled, thoroughly soaked thru dog. Husband, knowing what a freakin' softy I am (and of course he is a closet softy, lol) asked if I wanted him to stop so I could try to nab the little critter before it became roadkill or caused an accident. Did he need to ask again? Nope, I already had my seatbelt unbuckled and he had barely put the four-ways on, lol. I ran to the back of the car and the side of the road and called the little mop. It hesitated for a fraction of a heartbeat then ran to me wagging it's rope of a tail. OMGawd, I don't think I've ever seen anything so soaked through, even after a planned bath! I bundled the now semi-identifiable, un-neutered black and white shih tzu into my arms and ran back to the car with it, hopped into my seat and settled with it on my lap. I was already soaked-through and it was shivering uncontrollably. Poor thing.

Off we drove to our vet to see if they had a listing of the license numbers. All that was attached to the collar. Nope. And of course no microchip . But they handed me a towel and I asked them to call the city to see if they could contact the owner using the tag number. The City got back to us and said they had reached the owner and the owner was on his/her way. Yippee. Everybody was happy and so pleased there would be a happy resolution. An hour later, we were still sitting there waiting. Our patience was thinning. Fast. We decided to try calling the city back and if we couldn't be given the owner's info... the owner could darn well get their now dry and SAFE sweet pooch at the pound (which would cost them a good buck). Just as I was on hold, the door opened and a young man arrived to pick up his sister's dog who had escaped the yard. Wish the sister had told the city that she needed to find a drive! Whew, timing was perfect as we were heading out the door any second. We gave him a little chat (he was too nice and English too poor to really read the riot act at that point, lol), handed over the happy dog and left. I was still soaking but decided to go to a store for my Quick & Easy Painting magazine anyway. Was still wet when I got home - probably 2 hours after the rescue, lol.

Oh, well, happy ending. Dog saved, good samaritan act done and I "paid forward" from when one of my dogs was rescued many, many years ago when some nasty person decided to open our back gate and let them all out onto the road behind. One got confused in the dark and also rain-soaked night and got lost and wandered into an intersection a couple blocks away. That, too, was a happy ending.

Now I'm off to warm up some more and enjoy my magazine!

~ Shelley