This past weekend, we joined some friends at the lake for a weekend away to drink, eat and unwind. The only way to beat the beastly heat and humidity was to soak in the lake. We were floating near the dock, when I spied something out of the corner of my eye. I love the water, but don't like things that share the water with me (fishies, turtles, snakes, eeek!) so I was a little wary. It was too big and furry for a snake and was moving pretty fast in our direction. As it got closer, I realized it was a dog. A big, black lab to be specific. He was worn out from his swim across the lake so we coaxed him into a raft to rest. We tried to get him to swim back from the direction he came from. No dice, he loved us and would just swim from one person to the next no matter how much we tried to convince him otherwise.
My friend D and I decided to swim him back across the lake to see if we could find his home. It took us awhile to figure out how to get him out of the water (who knew dogs could climb a ladder?) but we had to because he was getting very tired. Turns out, Jake belongs to a couple across the lake and he apparently loves to swim. We returned him to his owners and swam back to our side of the lake. About an hour or two later, guess who appeared again? Yup, Jake apparently got loose and decided we were fun so he came back to visit. This time Mr. M and I returned him to his owners. Swimming across the lake with a 80+ lb lab is a chore, but we couldn't just leave him. Jake's daddy swam over on Sunday to thank us for saving his dog - twice.
This afternoon, I got a call from Skaterboy. "Uhm, I went outside to check on Coal..." Uh-oh, this can't be good. "He was laying in the yard with a black lab. I was able to get Coal inside and in his kennel. But, the lab is just chillin' on the back porch and drinking our water. He won't leave and wants to go in the house." Great, apparently I am now the great Black Lab Whisperer. All black labs in distress must seek me out for help. I figured with Coal inside and Skaterboy leaving, he would wander back to his home. Wrong! I didn't see him when I got home so I let Coal outside. After a minute or two, I noticed Coal was super excited and there he was- Black Lab #2. They seemed happy to see each other and were playing together but without a collar, I'm not sure I trusted him completely. I tried to get Coal inside the house, which wasn't an easy task since the two dogs were generally rolling around each other. Every time I tried to move to the back door, both dogs tried impatiently to get in. I finally distracted BL2 and got Coal inside.
BL2 flopped down on the porch like he was at home and didn't appear to be in a big hurry to leave. Not sure what to do, I tried to call the local Animal Control. "Our hours are 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday. Please call back during those hours." Darn. I tried the County Animal Control. They are only open 9-5 but if this was an emergency, they provided another number to call. This didn't seem like an emergency so I waited for Mr. M to come home.
A quick thinking guy, he called the non-emergency police line and they contacted Animal Control. They were at our house within 10 minutes to pick up BL2. BL2 had no collar and didn't appear to have been roaming for long. He seemed to be a nice dog and at least knew how to sit. He let Mr. M slip a leash over his neck without a fight (note to Coal - see it doesn't hurt!) I hope that his family is looking for him and goes to the shelter soon. I felt kind of bad sending him to doggy jail, but I don't think I could handle two big, black balls of fur running through my house day and night.
3 comments:
Here's a good rhetorical question: IF you had TWO Coals traipsing through the house, would there BE a house left?! :-)
The answer to that question is No, there really wouldn't be much left!
You girls are so right! There would be hardly any races of this house left. As it was, my vertical blinds are missing a few pieces because of the mirror image of himself, excited Coal a little too much!
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