Big Heart – Big Headache!

My husband, being the big hearted kind was on his way to work when he spotted two small dogs roadside just as a garbage truck was headed for them. He instinctively floored the car, cut off the truck and in a heroic leap, scooped up both dogs into the safety of his car. Now what? His first thought was to wander around the neighborhood to see if anyone was looking for them but he was in a hurry to get to work. Luckily both dogs had county rabies tags and we all know that’s a great way to get a hold of the owners. After dropping them off in our yard he called me with the tag numbers. I thought, “Sure, let’s do the right thing and get a hold of the owners. I’m sure there is some child crying for his/her puppies.” I called the county and proceeded to give them the information. My first call was met with, “you are missing a number on the tag. There needs to be 8 not 7, thank you – click”. My second call (now giving the other dog’s tag number which had 8 numbers) went like this, “Yes mam, I have the owner’s records in front of me, let’s conference you in on the contact number on file.” After a long pause the clerk comes back with negative news, the number was either entered in the computer incorrectly or given incorrectly and there went a familiar “click”. I called back and asked for the station that issued the tag – lucky me – it was from the county office itself. There went the idea that I could cross reference a local vet for the owner’s info… think, think, think. I call back asking for suggestions but the county will not give you any information about the owner other than a name and the dog’s name – that’s it!
You have no idea how many people are listed as R Vasquez in Dade County! So I began calling and sending messages via FaceBook – yes I took it there! In the meantime I searched the internet for postings of lost dogs and posted them on Craig’s list – I’m a veteran at this so I made sure I included a sentence that explained that they needed to provide ID to claim the dogs.
5 days went by… no way to reach the owner until it occurred to me that we could try to visit the county office with a letter in a stamped envelope and see if they would mail it to the owner – after they address it with the top secret address. My husband did his spy work and distracted the clerk who was seeking approval for our odd method of contacting the owners and was able to see the address on the screen. Just as the clerk was coming back he tells my husband to go see the gentleman in the corner desk who deals with the lost and found dogs there. This person was great, he was able to find a second phone number and reach the owners! YeAH! The puppies were going home! Now why the clerk that originally tried to conference me in with the owner never tried to find a second number? – IDK. I can tell you that it was probably only one line under the number she tried the first time, but that would have been too much trouble to help me help the dogs and help them by not turning over yet another animal to the shelter. The county did not make it easy for me! Anyway, later that day the owner came by to pick up his dogs and they were very happy little puppies!
During this ordeal our dogs were troopers – Oli the male Basenji was busy marking his territory, Balto my male Rat Terrier was right behind him marking as well and Jezebel the female Basenji was in a mood. She did not like the other females in the house very much, but was able to contain her emotions and only give a disciplinary “nip” when the puppies got close to her. At one point she tried to play with them, but they were just too rambunctious for her. She has mellowed out slightly – by Basenji measures!

Awh, poor baby :)

Taking Jezebel to the vet today. Last night we noticed that she was in pain, not swollen, when ever she was pet on the head. She would not let us look inside of her ear but you could see that it was covered in discharge. Most of the night was spent keeping our other Basenji Oli out of her ear. He wanted to play nurse and lick it clean for her. Funny thing is that she had no problems letting him lick it however we were not allowed to look inside! She seemed more chipper this morning but has not wanted to run on the path this so far. Got an appointment for her this afternoon. Poor baby!