Abandoning Your Best Friend at 5:30 AM

After tossing and turning from 4AM for another 90 minutes, I decided it was time to see if the world was safe to be greeted.

Listening to the soft snoring coming from nearby, I did not want to wake her.  Softly, Softly, I reached up onto the headboard just inches away in the predawn gloom and found my phone.  Pressing it to my chest through the thin blanket, I turned it on and allowed it to come alive.  I reached up and found the glasses that were next to it and put them on.

The phone announced that I had an email message with a vibration through my sternum and a soft chime.

The soft snoring continued unabated, so I stealthily pulled the device in under the covers to darken the effects that the display would have on the sleeping beauty.

Going through email and finding nothing particularly important to deal with in the early morning gloom, I checked Radar and found that it was going to be a crystal clear morning.

This allowed me the opportunity to get checked into what ever chat channels I usually keep going all day long, and get caught up on the things people are doing.

The website Craigslist caught my eye, so I set the phone to go out and fetch the morning information.  People are giving things away, both concrete and otherwise, and it can be an entertaining read to find out what others are doing in the course of their day.

I was clicking on an item that I did not really need when my subconscious made me miss.   I had clicked on a picture icon, a tiny camera graphic on the glass screen.  When the picture rendered, I saw staring back at me the face of a small dog, a fawn colored Chihuahua, begging for attention.

When ever I see those pictures, my heart usually pauses.  These are never a good sign.  Someone believes that they can tell Man's Best Friend that they'll be fine in a new home and all will be well.   I was right, that was exactly what had happened.  Someone believed that there would be a new home for this poor creature.  A 6 year old dog will never understand why it was abandoned and now lives with a new person or family.  It will always be confused and hope that it will go back.

Of course this is a preferable step to that of turning a middle aged dog into the shelter.  They simply don't last.  The people wanting dogs usually want puppies.   Cute little fur balls they can teach to be their perfect little creature, not understanding that work that comes along with a non house trained pet.  After all, that cute little puppy is a clean slate, as will your floors be after you clean after it for the 25th time in That Spot.

The six year old Chihuahua won't have that problem, it's already house broken and just wants to be with you, the original owner. 

Had it made it to the Shelter, that dog has a high chance of merely being put down because the shelters have so very many dogs coming in in this Republican Induced Great Depression.   After all, you can downsize your life.  Dump that old couch, the pictures of Great Aunt Maude won't fit in the newer smaller apartment, the Big TV has gone to the thrift shop, and the extra serving dishes along with it.  But you can't seem to find an apartment that fits what you really need because they won't take dogs, no way, no how. 

It was impossible for us to find an apartment that would accept my 47 pound dog because they had an arbitrary weight rule against "big dogs".  So we had to search and eventually bought a house that we're in to this day.

Not everyone is lucky enough to be able to do that, and those who are trying to find homes for their middle aged dogs are usually doing it because they lost their jobs in this downturn and are scrambling so that they won't be homeless themselves.

The dogs end up jettisoned and confused.  Cats fare better because, in my own experience, fewer places ban cats.  That is despite the fact that I have always been able to tell a cat lives in a place.  There's a certain smell...

Hopefully that poor creature will find a home.  There will be many more after it.  I got mine in a shelter, so should you.

In the eye blink that it took for me to read that short little paragraph about the soon to be homeless dog, I had that flood of thoughts.  Shuddering, I blanked the screen and threw the covers off.

Snoring ceased, the wet nose sniffed the air and sleeping beauty awakened.   I got out of bed and we began our day with a mile and a quarter dog walk.  My dog had her second chance.  She rescued me.