What goes around...

Sofie came by to check up on Luna Tuesday night, and they seemed to get along like wildfire, don't you dare take her with you yet, I said, I want her here with me a little longer yet...
One of the CACI Gundog rescue family said to me:"Don't thank me, I did it for Chiaro di Luna to be happy. If you want to thank me, pass it forward and pitch in when another dog goes missing"...
....which reminded me of the two missing dogs I have helped get back to their owners...

...The family were driving home in incipient rain, bumper to bumper both sides of the road in the local Sunday afternoon traffic jam, when I saw a giant golden labrador in the middle of the road, vacillating and looking like it would try to dart between cars to cross, but not getting up the courage. You guys go on home, I said, and jumped out of the car. I didn't have a leash, but just walked up, took the guy by the collar and led him to safety at the side of the road. I was actually scared of big dogs then, so this took an enormous amount of courage, only it turns out this dog was such a sweetie, it wasn't really scary at all. We crossed the road together again, and, with my hand on his collar the whole time, walked the twenty odd minutes all the way to my house, where I towel dried him and sat with him in the entrance hall, to keep him calm. Called the police, and then had an hour or so sitting with him, and we just bonded, I was blown away by his intelligence and gentleness.
The owner came by, insinuating that I had stolen the dog from the supermarket, said he had just picked the dog up from a year at the Police Training Academy and stopped off to shop on the way home, tying the dog at the store entrance...When he tried to take the labrador home, he wouldn't go with his owner, he was like clawing at the tiles to stay as the owner literally tried to drag him out. "I'll walk with you," I said, "He trusts me, you need to get him home so that he can feel safe." "Oh no" said the owner, "I have to stop by and thank the police!" So I walked with them to the police box, and saw how the owner looped the leash around the chair without tying the knot, and realized how the dog had got loose the first time, scared and feeling abandoned in a strange place with the new and unfamiliar owner disappearing, no communication with his dog...I walked home up the hill with them, and felt like I was betraying him, handing this intelligent beautiful being over to a life of stifling unloving boring people, who just wanted a DOG. I was so upset when they delivered a box of biscuits later, I just wanted to know the dog was going to be safe and happy...I tried going back the next day with treats to visit, and they wouldn't even open the front gate, "Go home!" they said over the intercom, "We can't have our dog bonding with a stranger." I was heartbroken and cried for a week, and wished I hadn't notified the police...there are degrees of cruelty, and ownership was uncontested...But I had learned from this brief encounter and doomed love-affair, just how big-hearted and beautiful, what incredible souls big dogs have.

The second lost dog we helped was on a family walk with Nobu and Claire, and I noticed a smallish dog behind some fenced off prefectural land (now a new housing development) and wandered over with Nobunaga to check it out. It was a friendly beagle, obviously lost, so I looped Nobu's leash through her collar and we walked slowly home, asking everyone we met on the way whether they knew the owner. We arrived home, and I walked a little more in the other direction, letting the beagle have her head, still looped to Nobu, in the hope that she would lead us to her home, but she was just enjoying the walk, so obviously not intent on finding home yet, rather having fun! So I took her home, and wow, this lady was on the go, dashing up and down the stairs and playing tag with Nobu, who thought the whole thing hilarious. Beagles are a bundle of energy! We called the police and a half hour or so later, just before the police arrived, a doggie friend I had asked earlier turned up with the owners, he had met them as they searched way over yonder and made the connection...come in, I said, let's have a cool drink of tea. The two ladies called their family with the good news, they came over in their intimidating black car, and the whole family (Dad came running up in his socks!) bundled in and off. I was a bit nonplussed, it was all so rushed, but all's well that ends well...
...and so now it is my turn to regain my lost child, and Chiaro di Luna is safely snoozing as I type, Sofie was watching over her from the rainbow bridge, and all is well in our household, as I once again thank you all from the bottom of my heart for helping bring her back to be with her family.