What a dog-gone day!

An interesting thing happened as I was about to feed Dallin. Sampson, our dog, began barking and running from the front room window to the living room window and then over to the kitchen bay window and back again. About that time, I noticed that all the other neighborhood dogs were barking too. I decided to check it out. I lifted the blinds to get an unobstructed view of the backyard. There was a black Labrador sniffing around that I had never seen before. Being an owner of a big dog and having only a partially fenced yard, I've noticed other dogs are attracted to our place. I tapped on the glass to see how the dog would react. It looked up, seemed interested and didn't bark. I could tell now that it was a female because she was obviously lactating. She was very swollen with milk and I wondered where she came from and where her pups were. I watched her circle to the side of the house and then I decided to check her out further. Dallin, being a good baby, was content to be strapped in the highchair while watching this little show. I opened the back door and slipped out before Sampson could come bounding out. I called to her and she seemed excited to see me and started to come towards me. By this time Sampson was crazy and wanted out. Knowing most Labs are friendly and smart, and judging from her disposition, I decided to let Sampson out to inspect this new visitor. He ran partway over to her then slowed down to watch her reaction. She dropped to her stomach and waited for him to sniff her out. Instant friends!!

This is not the first time a strange dog has come around to our backyard. Usually, I have two choices, call animal control and risk it running away and getting hurt or get close enough to the dog to check for ID. If it has ID, I call the owner. I've heard how expensive it can be to get your dog out of the Shelter especially if it isn't up to date on vaccines. It can be up to $200!! I usually hook up the dog outside or put it into the garage (depending on the weather) while I wait for the owner or Animal Control to come. This Lab didn't have any tags on her but judging from her condition, I doubt she traveled too far. I decided to hook her up in the backyard and call Animal Control. If I didn't have an infant to take care of, I might have taken her in and posted "Found" fliers of her.

About this time I got the idea to take a picture of her and write a blog about her. I dismissed the thought and just made the call to Animal Control. I began feeding Dallin in his highchair and then looked outside and saw another black dog approaching from the side of the house. It was Sampson's friend Tyra. She is a big bushy dog that lives across the cul-de-sac. I decided that having two roaming dogs in one day was way too exciting to not blog about.

Just after I snapped these shots, the Animal Control Officer came and took the Lab. I called Tyra's owners and they came to get their dog. Now things are back to normal and Sampson has a lot of new smells to investigate in the backyard!