Baby's Neighborhood Story (11/9/06)

Yesterday afternoon, my teenage neighbor from across the street came by in her PaPa John's car...I told her we didn't order pizza, but it turned out she had seen a pitbull puppy being dumped at the school yard on Flicker and rescued it. Since she had to go to work, I took the dog. But with some sort of skin rash, I was reluctant to put her in with other animals and kept her in my yard, hoping the girl would come back to help, but she never did. Meanwhile, after consulting with my new helper Jennifer, we decided we should find out if it was really mange or not. I called the vet, looked up on the internet different types of mange, and put out a Petwatch Found (dumped) email.

Meanwhile, Baby had made herself quite at home in my backyard.. But first I had to tie her up with a long leash on an old short inactive gas pole we have used many times for this purpose, since my yard isn't secure. However, Baby had other ideas, getting herself wrapped around the picnic table, the tree, and lastly the pole itself. By then, I had moved the picnic table and everything else I could around her. So since that obviously didn't work, I decided to try blocking all the gaps under our gates and somehow got her loose from literally tieing herself to the pole. She loved running all around the yard and really thought that was great. Since she seemed kinda "clueless", I thought maybe I had fully secured the yard, and left her to play.

Next thing I know my 9 yr. old son (special needs who used to be so scared of dogs) is so attracted to the dog, he goes out on his own to play with her.. She ran around then jumped on him pushing him down and scratching (by accident) in the process. Course now I am a worried mommy as I had read that some of mange is contagious to humans! So I call the vet again (this is about 5:30 and the dog has only been here since 4:30) and she assures me my son will be ok and that we just need to wash the scratches and that it doesn't spread thru the claws. Surprisingly, my son still loved to play with the dog and wouldn't stay away from her, but was a lot more careful.

Finally thinking everything was okay and letting "Baby" play outside happily and quietly, shortly after dusk, I get a knock on the door with a walker who had "found" Baby who apparently had escaped my yard. ARF! So here I go again.. Obviously not secure, unsure about letting her in the house with a rash, seemed too hot and crowded in the garage, I call my next door neighbor who have a large 6 ft. kennel that they had offered in the past for Petwatch and no longer used for their dog. Even though it was dark by now, they so nicely said we could borrow it. I sent my husband over, begged the back door teenage boys who were outside anyway to help and we all put together the kennel in my backyard. Baby enjoyed all the attention and the neighbor was possibly interested in adopting her too, but only after more info gathered from a vet.

So Baby ended up in the kennel, but still cried, so I called up Rita, who was storing our medium/large dog crate and asked her tor bring it over when she got home.. By now it was after 9pm. Rita did bring it over around 10pm, I took it out to Baby, but she preferred to be with people, and didn't settle down for a long time. I hope my neighbors weren't too upset, but since more than half were involved in this particular animal rescue, I think they understood!

This morning I let Baby play again out in yard and she escaped again. Luckily she came running back to me from way down the street. She and I had a nice long walk on the leash and had breakfast together outside. She rode well in the car to the vet, though definitely didn't want to go in there. She met a poodle up there and was friendly and submissive to the other small dog. Thank goodness for Lindley Vet who gave advice and treatment options for her.

Let's just hope Baby finds a good home soon, maybe even right next door!

karen

After I wrote the above story, I kept Baby several more days and she relaxed and got used to her temporary shelter and I showed her to my son's bus driver. And a few days later Mr. E told me he would like to adopt Baby. Late one afternoon we said goodbye to Baby as she took off for her new home. She got to ride the school bus! She is doing well and since we see Mr. E every day, we get frequent reports on her. She loves her new doggy siblings and new family.