This was our dog for about 12 hours. Monday night around 11:00 she wandered onto our porch and spent the night sleeping on the porch carpet by the door. In the morning I walked out and became the dog whisperer. She cautiously approached me, let me touch her and I sat on the carpet talking to her with my hands on her face. Then she nestled her head under my arm and sat across my lap. I called all the local vets and searched our WKRK Facebook page for lost dog postings. None. Vets had no owner calls reporting a missing golden lab. My heart sank. We couldn't keep her. She let her guard down and put her trust in me. She followed me everywhere in the yard, barked at squirrels chasing them up trees, always returning to my side. Around noon we drove out to the Humane Society Animal Shelter and surrendered her. I cried as I told them how she came to our home and why we couldn't keep her and cried all the way home. She is such a sweet creature she is easily adoptable. If we weren't in a subdivision but on our own acreage, maybe she could have stayed with us. Pets, especially dogs are a big commitment. The vet expenses for teeth cleaning, (yikes!) nail trimming, boarding when we travel to see family, good nutritional food for a large dog and other unexpected costs all came into play with our decision. Such guilt.
Some days are full of doing tasks and chores that Cliff did for me. The floor wasn't that dirty but he enjoyed saying. "Guess I need to pull out the vacuum. I'm tripping over debris." I thanked him. Whenever I was in the kitchen trying out new recipes, making cookies or the double batch tapioca pudding for him, he was there beside (getting in my way sometimes) washing the utensils, pots/pans, cutting boards, drying them and putting everything back in their proper places only to have me take some things back out and reuse again. "I just washed that" he would state. He learned to ask if I were through with things before he cleaned up after me. I thanked him. He emptied the dishwasher when it was finished in such an orderly manner (getting in my way sometimes because I was also in the kitchen working but he wanted to be there with me). I thanked him. Every morning he made my bed reminding me of the order that the pillows needed to be placed. John&
Comments