Stray Dog
Written at 12:48 p.m. on 2007-07-30
Stray Dog
A large chunk of this weekend was taken up dealing with a stray dog. On Saturday morning I went off at half nie to do my Asda Shopping (how showbiz am I?) and saw a german shepherd type dog trundling happily along the road. By the time I got back an hour later he was sat on the front lawn of the house across the road. I went over to say hello and he seemed like a very friendly sort of dog, he was thrilled to have someone to make a fuss of him and he had big sad brown eyes, so I just left him there, assuming he�d go home. He didn�t so I gave him some water and went off to the picnic concert at Tatton (which was brilliant, fireworks this year were the best yet and there was a tent giving away free glasses of fruit cider which we took full advantage of, being a bunch of cheapskates). We eventually got home at about half one by which time it was peeing it down. The poor dog was sat on our front lawn, in the rain, looking thoroughly fed up. I couldn�t just leave him there so I brought him into the back garden and gave him some dogfood then made him a bed in the shed which he sniffed round a bit before trundling outside to go to sleep in the middle of the back lawn in the rain.
The next day I fed him again and let him back out on the front while I rang round to see if anyone would come and get him. Apparently dogs are only allowed to be homeless in office hours. The dog warden only does office hours, the dogs home won�t pick him up would take him if the dog warden or the police would being him in, the RSPCA had a recorded message telling me to ring the dog warden who wasn�t working and my local police station was shut. So the only thing to do was take him to thebigger police station in Bury. The problem with this was that the dog had obviously been outside for a week or so and he absolutely whiffed to high heaven, ther was no way I could survive a 15 minute car journey with him in that state so I had to attempt to wash him with dog shampoo on the front lawn in front of an assembled crowd of neighbours and their kids. I am nothing if not dignified. This helped a bit but he still hummed so I sprayed him with deoderant. He took it better than I expected, just looking a little bit wounded rather than having theall out mental attack that our dog has if you go a yard near him with an aerosol. The next challenge was getting him in the car. He wasn�t for getting in the boot at all and so I had to cover theback seats with plastic and out him in there. Problem was that as soon as we set off he wiggled about and howled so that the plastic fell off the seats and he was sat on thefabric. Even today after yesterday�s vigorous cleaning the car still smells of an antisocial blend of Vanish upholstery stain remover and Comfort Refresh with an undertone of stray dog. Anyway, I got him to the police station and signed him in. They said they�ll keep him overnight and he�ll go to the dogs home tomorrow where hopefully someone will come looking for him. He was a lovely dog, really sweet but Micah says we can�t have him if no one claims him because we haven�t got the space or the money. I�m not convinced we haven�t got the space or money, I want to keep him if no one comes froward and says he�s theirs. I suppose someone probaly will because with a bath he�d be a lovely looking dog and he�s very placid.
Poor old dog.
