Positive Post #9 - Good Dog

Another home-grown Positive Post today.

This morning at around 230am, we woke to the sound of dogs barking and our dog, the ever-viglant NerdHound, growling at the window.

A few months back, one of our cars was broken into and our GPS stolen. Although we've since installed motion detection lighting and an intrustion alarm system, we're still wary.

Tony poked his head out the bedroom window. "The motion light's been triggered. Did you park your car in the garage last night?"

"No," I said. "I would have had to move your car over more and forgot about it. Crap."

We rushed out of the bedroom and down the front stairs. I threw open the front door and walked out. If there was someone lurking about, I wanted to scare the crap out of them.

Instead, I saw a very large dog standing at the end of our driveway in the darkness. Staring intently at me.

Uh, oh. My first thought was, "Get back in the house. NOW." You never know what the behavior of big, lone, wandering dogs will be. The last thing *I* wanted to be was another dog attack victim.

By the time I closed the screen door behind me, HE was on the other side.

HE was a very large golden lab. He looked sweet, cold, and seemed to be begging for human attention... and he had a collar labeled "Scruffy" with two phone numbers. Now we had a name for him.

I carefully opened the door a couple of inches and firmly grabbed his collar, trying to keep NerdHound from coming through the door at the same time. NerdHound was aggressively curious, as poodles can be. Scruffy was quiet and friendly. "How you doing, Scruffy?" He looked up at me with happy chocolate eyes. Sweet pooch.

I read off the local phone number to Avindair. I heard him speak into the phone. "I'm sorry to get you out of bed, but we found your dog wandering in our street." He gave detailed directions to the house and promised we'd be waiting at the door.

Avindair picked up NerdHound and kept him at a distance, while I brought Scruffy into our entryway. He was cold and muddy, but gentle and quiet. Never made a sound the entire time. I scratched his ears, said his name a lot, and told him he was a good dog.

A few minutes later, a car pulled up at the end of our driveway. A slim, middle-aged woman, who had the distinct appearance of someone woken up in the middle of the night, got out and cautiously came up the walk. I'd be cautious, too, if I was walking up to a stranger's house at almost 3 in the morning.

Scruffy, we learned, had been gone for some time. They'd almost given up hope of finding him. I immediately thought of all the hungry and cold days and nights he'd probably had to endure. As the woman leaned in to take hold of his collar, she pressed a $10 bill into my hand.

"Thank you for finding him. Please take it for your trouble," she said.

I handed it back to her. "Oh, no! He was a good pooch. No trouble at all. It's just good to know that he's going home!"

She thanked me again and herded Scruffy into her car.

Getting up at 230am is no fun. Doing a good deed at 230am is.

And, since we never would have discovered Scruffy without NerdHound's alert, he got a biscuit before he went back to bed. Good dog.