Meet the Shih-Tzu
Well, we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. We had caught and
placed two feral cats, the rest of our menagerie was doing well. Things
were generally going about as well as a household with five animals and two
people can be going. Denise and I had gone out for the evening, one of our
dinner and Wal-Mart excursions, and were heading home. Now there are two
ways to get home. One way there are several traffic lights and
corresponding traffic. The other doesn't have all those distractions.
So, there we were, cruising home not expecting anything. Then Denise spots it, a little pair of eyes bouncing down the road. I thought it was a cat or a raccoon (I must have raccoons on the brain), then as we got closer we saw that is wasn't a cat it was in fact a very small dog. A small dog trotting down the center of a dimly-lit street.
You know what had to happen. That's right, we stopped, I opened the door and in hopped a small, black and white, thin and badly matted little dog.
Now what are you supposed to do when you have a ultra friendly little dog sitting in your lap in desperate need of some help? Well, once we stopped and opened that door we were pretty much committed to doing something. Since it was working on 10:00 there were not many houses that had lights on and we didn't know anyone in the neighborhood we picked the closest house and knocked on the door. The voice behind the door knew nothing of a little, smelly, underfed black and white dog.
That sealed it, we were taking this little pooch home. We just hoped the other animals in the menagerie wouldn't freak out when our little fuzzy find came home.
With much trepidation we came home. Out went the other dogs, the cats we figured would scatter and not attack. We brought the little dog in and gave her some food. After a cursory glance around the living room she dove into the food then hopped up and made herself right at home on the couch.
As she lay draped across the back of the couch (cat style) we pondered what to do. We already had 5 other animals, could we really afford a sixth? If we couldn't keep her what do we do with her? Could we find the owner? Too many question, and it was too late. Denise made a quick ride over to her mom's to get a cage to put her in for the night. While she was gone I actually gave this little stranger dog a bath. That's when I knew that she was a good dog. To let a complete stranger bathe her with no problems? I was shocked.
When we had her secured in the cage in a closed room we let Fred and Taz in. This would be a big test.
The little dog was barking up a storm. Fred and Taz sniffed around, sniffed at the door then came back to the living room and laid down like nothing was different. This was too good to be true. Could our two dogs, who go ape if they see another dog walking in front of their house, not care that there was something barking INSIDE their house?
Apparently they didn't care. Over the next few days our little Shih-Tzu was slowly integrated into the household. We took her to the vet and gave her a name. She got a clean bill of health from the vet (aside from a little cherry-eye and being skinny) and over several days we got her groomed. We also gave her a name. Pepe, in honor of Pepe Le Pew because she was black and white and stunk when we found her.
Ads were placed, the vet scanned her for a chip. We received several phone calls but no one came close to matching Pepe's description. By this time she had worked herself into the household. The other dogs accepted her to the point where we quit crating her while we were at work. She lays on us while watching TV and is even sometimes successful at sleeping with us in the bed. Pepe has just about gotten back to her ideal weight and is pretty much a happy dog. All that's left to do is get her neutered for we don't have deal with her being in heat again.
Denise and I had talked about giving her away, but you know, I just don't think I can do that. I guess that's why we seem to attract animals.
