Are We A Stop On The Lost-Dog Underground Railroad?

So, guess what greeted my husband on the front porch of our house yesterday afternoon, when he returned from work. Yes, you guessed it, a dog.

Well, maybe a horse-dog: The yellow lab (mix?) is huge. Being the bleeding-heart animal lovers that we are, we immediately put food and water out front for Yellow Lab and checked his collar to see if he he had any tags. Unfortunately, he had none.

Now, before I go any further, I must tell you that this isn’t the first time. We currently care for two dogs, both Border Collie mixes, Hershey and Molly.

Hershey’s mother, Abby, showed up on our doorstep when we lived in Blanchard. She was cold, hungry and pregnant. We warmed her up, fed her and three days later (three days after Christmas) she gave birth to 13 bouncing baby puppies at the vet’s office.

We cared for her and the puppies while she nursed them, then spent a day sitting on the corner outside Wal-Mart to find homes for the pups. (We contacted local shelters, the vet, friends and the SPCA. No one had any other options for us.) We found homes for everyone but Hershey, who I fell in love with the minute I saw her white and milk chocolate coat. And later, we found a home for Abby as well.

Fast forward a couple of years and we are living in Enid. Driving home one day, I saw an adorable Border Collie puppy standing in the middle of our road. I slowed down and went around her, after she moved out of my way. When I looked in my side mirror, I saw her chasing me.

So, the optimist in me thought that she must be a new pet at one of our neighbor’s houses and that she would stop chasing as soon as she hit the edge of her property.

No such luck.

She followed me home, where my son fell in love with her. She has lived with us for more than a year now.
So, you can imagine what I was thinking when Yellow Lab showed up on our doorstep…

As it turns out though, Yellow Lab loooooves riding in the car. So when my husband started to get in the car and go to work for a little while, the dog hopped right in.

Off to work he went with DH, who showed him off to his co-workers. He hopped right back in the car for the return trip — and waited patiently outside until DH left to go back to work for a short time that night.

As fate would have it, DH stopped at Wal-Mart on his way home and Yellow Lab hopped out of the car and proceeded to trot right inside the store as if he belonged there.

Yes, this was a good thing.

Yellow Lab, now known as Buster, has a good home with a Wal-Mart employee, who fell in love with him the moment she laid eyes on him.

The morale of the story: If a stray animal shows up at your house, and nothing else works, take him to Wal-Mart and wait for someone to fall in love with him. Oh, and please don’t leave him at my house. We have plenty.