They're filming Batman in Pittsburgh, which has been super cool in so many ways-but not for traffic. What usually takes less than 5 minutes to get from my job to Steve's took 45 minutes on Friday afternoon. Painful. So by the time we got home and ate dinner I was close to foaming at the mouth to crack a beer and settle in for the evening.
This was not to be.
Just as said beer was cracked, I saw Izzy head for the front door. She's been barking her head off at every little thing, so I was preparing for a useless round of "No bark!" Instead, I see a small-ish young pitbull on our front porch looking through the glass door. And she has no tags. *sigh*
Long story short, she's amazingly sweet and we can't find her owner. She spends the night in a crate in the basement (sidenote: I lurve me some doggies and believe pitties get a bad rap and aren't all out for blood, but one did attack Izzy a few years ago and had her by the throat, so I am a bit more skiddish than were it another breed).
The next day Steve makes some signs and I hang a few around the neighborhood. I take her to the smartest animal person I know Nina Wolf, who owns a local pet supply store called Animal Nature and is the former owner of Au Purr, LLC the folks who pet sit while we're away. Anyways, Nina confirms that the poor lil' pup has mange and needs quarantined. Nina tells me that most shelters will assess her for aggression, but that the mange is a strike against her.
Now, I'm not against "kill" shelters. I even volunteered at one for a hot minute. I don't believe that a dog/cat living out its life in a small cage, slowly losing its mind is necessarily the best thing to do. However, mange is treatable, and this dog was CRAZY sweet...and I've never had to put an animal down before so I wasn't ready to go there. :)
I take her to the local shelter where basically they confirm that not only will they put her down because of the mange, they won't even treat her for it even though I offered to pay full-price for it. I then call our local vet who was great and said they would treat her, but it'd be a few days, then it'd still be a minute before she could go back out for adoption.
So now I'm back to being stuck between the health and well being of our animals and the life of this dog. Now, I'd like to say that this is where some inner strength kicked in and I made some tough but firm decisions that ultimately were best for everyone involved. That I'm that woman that summons strength in the face of adversity and moves forward with a quiet dignity that can be admired.
Instead I just cried in my car.
Fortunately, while I was crying (the dog of course, happily smiling, tongue hanging out in the back of the Suburu) her owner called responding to one of the signs I posted. Hallefuckinglujah!
Turns out I hung a sign about 2-3 houses down from hers. Sadly, I don't think it's the best of homes for our lost little pup. The girl was young and was trying to treat the mange with Tree Tea Oil. She also said this wasn't the first time she'd run away, and that there was a baby pit that also got out. I tried to scare her by telling her a doctor told me she'd need prescription medicine, and if she got out again and someone found her they'd put her down.
This is the second dog that's come to us without tags and it's a real bee in my bonnet. I can't say that for next animal that appears on our door (oh come on, we both know there will) who doesn't have tags I will search for their owner. If you don't love your animal enough to put tags on them, then you don't get to keep them. I am SO relieved that I didn't have to make that difficult decision, but it feels short lived when you know the animal is just going back to owners that don't know how to/don't care to take care of them. Not ideal.
While the weekend was a bit derailed, we're back on track and finishing up the priming of "the blue room." While it's good to be working on the house again, I can't help but wonder where that missing baby pit is and when s/he'll show up on our door. :)
