Stray Dogs on the Road

(I started out to tell a Caturday tail about the new cat, but this came out instead.)

Daughter was coming out to have breakfast with us yestermorn, when she stopped for a pair of stray dogs on the back highway. There are ways and rules for dealing with strays, but it's always dicey. Upshot is, with help of folks who stopped to help, she got them into the back of the pickup, and took them to the shelter. They were too weak to get in the bed by themselves, despite trying.

Abandoned, probably. The little b&w shepherd had a collar, no tag. Both had mange, ticks, bugbites, much evidence of neglect or having been loose a while. I'm guessing they, m & f, were separately abandoned and hooked up. The pit had scars that the shelter workers guessed meant he was dumped for not fighting - also massive cancers. They'll probably put him down; they have a great adoption program at our shelter, but they don't put pits up for adoption. The shepherd goes up for adoption in 5 days if unclaimed. Our dog (part German Shepherd, part pit!) has been lonely since our other dog died. Wish we could more easily say we could afford to adopt the shepherd.

Daughter was pretty devastated. Waiting with her for the shelter to open were a couple of frequent rescuers, bringing in five abandoned puppies. They helped comfort her, especially about the pit's fate. People can be so casually cruel!

But then, all but a couple of our many cats and dogs have been dumpees we adopted. So as I say, others' cruel acts become our joyous burdens.