Almost Left Behind

When I got back to the trailer from water aerobics yesterday, Denny was standing outside talking to our friend Brian.  As I stood there listening to the conversation, I noticed a blonde cocker spaniel wandering around freely across the street.  I had seen the dog before but couldn't remember what its owner looked like but it was pretty obvious the owner didn't know or care where the dog was.  Three people stopped by to see if the dog was ours (I think because we were just standing outside and the other folks assumed we had our dog out with us) so no one had a clue who the owner was.  A man was preparing his motorhome to leave a couple of spots up the street, finally pulling out and stopping to hitch up his tow dolly to the rear of the motorhome.  I figured the dog couldn't belong to him, because who would leave without checking to see if his dog was there?  In the meantime, we realized the dog was blind, after he bumped into our truck tire and wandered off.

After a couple of minutes the man stood up from hitching up his tow dolly, looked down the street, saw the dog and called to it.  The cocker spaniel was indeed his dog and he had no idea that the dog was out wandering around.  Chances are real good if the dog had gone behind someone's RV or car the fellow would have gotten into his motorhome and driven off none the wiser.  The dog had no collar or tags on to tell us who owned him nor giving a phone number to reach an owner.  Scary.

Our most recent issue of the Escapees (a camping organization) magazine has a notice in it of a lost cat.  A lady had been boondocking in Quartzite (with 100,000 other RVers) and the cat apparently slipped out the door behind her at some point.  Despite much searching, the cat was gone and the lady figured someone had picked it up as a friendly stray and left with it.  The reason for the lady's ad was not just to get the cat back, but to know that it had found a good home rather than ending up as a meal for a coyote.

It only takes a moment for our pets to slip out--we've learned that ourselves.  Patches alway wears her collar and name tag with our phone number on it.  Someday while we're at a veterinary office I may even think to have her microchipped.  Accidents happen, but I surely wonder about a pet owner who has a blind, aging cocker spaniel with no tags who doesn't take the time to assure himself that his dog is secured in his motorhome before he starts to take off for his next destination.  How sad for the dog.....