Fred's Pet Rescue!

Move over, The Dodo -- here comes The Fredfred!

All right, well, maybe it wasn't quite as dramatic as all that, but it was considered a good deed, anyway.

Tuesday night I was walking Nipper around the neighborhood when he stopped and looked back. Behind us was a golden retriever, smiling. I don't know how long he'd been trailing us, but there he was.

He was all by himself, but he had a collar on, so I thought be might be one of the dogs at the corner we had just passed. The guys did the usual sniff & greet and then mixed it up with some Puppy UFC -- hard on me, since my dog lunges like a puma and weighs almost as much. Plus, we were right in the middle of the street. It's not a busy street, but there's no sidewalk. So I had to try to wrestle them to the lawn nearby, while trying to remember if I'd seen that dog before. And no, I had not.

He was very friendly, though, so I pulled him in to give him a pat and have a look at his tags. The owner had put his name on it, and a phone number, and even his home address -- and it was clear across town, in an old cottage community, four miles away! Could he have gotten that lost? He did have a bunch of burs stuck on his coat, which I first thought were ticks.

I alerted the Mrs. to the situation, then dialed the number. I was informed by the Verizon recorded lady that the owner of that line was not available and thanked and hung up on.

Now I'm thinking this sweet puppy is owned by some crackhead who didn't pay his phone bill and probably doesn't even know his dog is missing.

My wife came to meet us with another leash, and we led the little guy and our guy to the house. She suggested we call our vet, have the dog scanned for a chip -- if the dog had one it might have updated information. The vet's office was still open for half an hour, so I called and asked if we could bring the stranger in; they said okay. So I loaded him into the car and off we went. (He was not shy about jumping into a strange SUV.)

While I was stuck at a light I had the thought -- maybe there's just a problem with the guy's phone? So I texted the number, asking if he had a dog.

He called me within a minute.

As it turned out, my call couldn't get to him because he was clear across the country. His elderly parents were dogsitting the pup in their home, not two hundred feet from where I found him. He gave me their address and called his folks while I turned the car around.

His mom was grateful. Turns out they were playing in the yard with Golden Boy when he spotted a deer and ran after it into the woods. They'd been stomping through the underbrush looking for him since; meanwhile he'd popped out on the street and found me and Nipper.

So all's well that ends well. It could definitely have gone the other way, since when we found the dog he'd crossed a street with a blind curve frequented by idiot drivers.

I'm glad to have brought the pup home, and I hope the parents were able to think of a way to keep him there until their son returned.

It's always nice to be able to do someone a favor. All the same, I'm glad we didn't have to hold on to the little guy ourselves. Two dogs is more than enough to handle here. I am happy to do a favor, but not that big a favor!