Well ladies and gentlemen, it has been a very interesting 18 hours. Yesterday after school, Jordan rode her bike to a friend's house to see if she could play. On her way back she encountered a girl with a dog looking to find the dog's owners. The dog is a little cocker spaniel puppy - maybe 9 months old or thereabouts. The weather yesterday was rainy and cold and so the puppy was shivering and drinking out of puddles. The girl had not been able to find anyone, so Jordan quite unselfishly offered to take over the job. So, 15 minutes after Jordan left with her bike she returns with a bike and a puppy. Now this puppy has had some care - a bad haircut on the top of its head the main indicator - so I told Jordan, and Jordan didn't argue, that we had to find the owners. Our first stop was our apartment office to see if they recognized the puppy or could let us know if anyone was looking for one. The office was closed (apparently on Fridays it is open from 10-12 only). Our next stop was the neighborhood surrounding our complex. We asked everyone we encountered - dog owners and kids especially - to see if anyone recognized her, but nobody did. So, our next stop was home where we bathed the poor cold shivering dog and got her some cat food to eat. Jordan then set out to clean her room to eliminate choking hazards and I had a chance to entertain the puppy. She really is quite adorable and snuggly and funny. She found one of our cat's toys - one the cat has no use for - and enjoys playing fetch and pouncing on the toy.
Jordan, of course, is delighted with the dog. She gets more and more sure that the dog will be ours as the day goes by. I remind her constantly that the puppy belongs to someone and our job is to find them, so last night when she said her bedtime prayers, she prayed that we find the owner and that either they take the dog, or tell us we can have her, whatever God thought was best. I thought it quite mature of her, however I'm afraid she'll be a little heartbroken when we have to say goodbye and I admit I'll be a little sad, too. Last night, the dog slept with Jordan. Since Jordan's bed is a little high, we moved the mattress to the trundle and the two of them snuggled together on the bed while Sheba and I slept in my room locked away from the dog.
Sheba is less entranced by the puppy (who we're calling Kiki Darling at this point). Jordan has finally gotten her wish to see a dog chasing a cat and skidding and running into a wall. It's happened several times already. When Molly the dog visited us last week, Molly was pretty uncertain about the cat, and Sheba dominated her. When Luke came for a short visit, he nearly killed her and so we kept them completely apart. Kiki is much more interested in playing, and Sheba resorts to hissing and growling and overall letting everyone know how unhappy she is. This morning, Jordan and Kiki and I were sitting on our Lazyboy all together watching a little White Christmas together when Sheba came into the room. I don't know if she didn't see the puppy, thought she was a blanket, or otherwise mistook the situation, but she walked over to the chair and jumped up on it as if she was going to join us. It took her about .15 seconds to realize her mistake, puff up her tail, arch her back, and start growling as she dashed away. This was one of the points when Kiki chased, skid, and ran into the wall while she chased Sheba.
As I said, it's been an interesting 18 hours - only 6 of which were engaged in sleeping. We're heading to the office again in a little bit and then I'm going to see if the puppy has a identification chip to let us know who she is. We'll see how long she hangs around...
No comments:
Post a Comment