I once was lost but now am found

TJ and I went to Savannah this past week for the "13th day" ceremony for my grandfather. My parents had invited a Hindu priest to their house to conduct the puja, and several of our relatives and their friends attended. Afterwards we had a pretty amazing South Indian vegetarian lunch cooked by my mom (who must have been cooking for days). Thanks to her, I can't eat at any South Indian restaurant because their food is crap compared to hers.

But I digress. The real reason for my post is to tell you about a new friend we made in Savannah:

On Wednesday night, we went out to dinner with my parents. Upon our return, we saw a dog wandering around near their street - an adorable little beagle guy. Their subdivision doesn't usually have dogs running loose, so we stopped to see if he had any tags. He had a tag for a microchip, as well as his county license, but no nametag. Since he was little, and mostly friendly (but very nervous), TJ scooped him up and we took him home. It was around 10pm, and the county licensing office was closed. I called the Avid microchip number, and they told me that particular chip was registered to a vet, but they didn't have an owner's name. And of course, the vet was already closed. So we decided to hold on to the little guy that night, and then call the vet in the morning.

TJ had the idea of walking around the neighborhood to see if anyone was out looking for him. So we set off, TJ, the little guy, and myself, along the main road through my parent's giant subdivision. We walked for about 35 minutes, and I thought the street we were on would loop around back to the subdivision entrance.

Well, I was wrong. We kept walking, and another 20 minutes later, saw the Savannah police cruiser that monitors the neighborhood at night. We told him we were a little bit lost, and he recognized us because my mom had called him to tell him about the dog we found, in case someone had called the security patrol looking for him. He thought it was hilarious we had walked so far from home and offered us his cell phone so I could call my parents to come pick us up. (I had left mine at home, and TJs had no juice - not smart...) We couldn't get a hold of them, so the nice policeman drove back to my parents house (a good 3 miles away!) and asked my dad to come and pick us up.

During this whole adventure, the little beagle stayed calm and was really enjoying his nice long walk. He had a ton of energy.

When we got back home (thanks Appa) we put the little guy in the screened-in porch outside, since we didn't know if he was housetrained. By then it was pretty late, and time for us to go to bed. I hung out with the dog for a while, and he was just the sweetest little guy. When I left him on the porch, he just started whining this sad little squeaky whine.

Well, I couldn't take it. I asked my mom if I could bring him inside (somehow that made me feel like I was 10 years old again) and she reluctantly agreed. I brought him up to our bedroom, on the leash and after a little coaxing, he jumped right up on the bed, and curled up by me to go to sleep. An hour or so later, he got a little anxious, so we went outside (quickly!). After that, he slept with TJ, all curled up in a little beagle ball. Apparently, like Spike, he was wiggly and kicked TJ a lot, so it was a long night for them. I slept well. :)

I woke up early and we fed him because his stomach was growling. He happily ate my parents' dog's "senior" dog food. I took the little guy for a short walk and hoped that someone would recognize him. Though, honestly, at that point, I hoped he didn't have a home, and we could keep him! Around 7:15, the vet called us back (I left a message with his chip number) and let us know the name, address and phone number of his owner. I called them, and the wife was happy to hear we had her dog. I was sad to hear they were looking for him because I was already making plans to figure out how to get him back to Seattle. About 20 minutes later, her husband came to pick him up.

We found out the little guy's name was Bogey, he was about a year old, and he liked to go golfing with his person, and he jumped out of the golf cart to chase something, and got loose. They had found him as a stray, so he seems to have a bit of a wandering personality, just like most beagles. From the looks of him, and his boundless energy, I suspect he's a beagle/Jack Russell mix, because he was much smaller than Spike and his ears were a slightly different shape. Unfortunately the guy was using a shock collar to train Bogey, which I really think is WRONG for such a little dog, and one who seemed eager to please people.

Later in the day, Bogey's person dropped off a $25 gift certificate to Petsmart for us, which was nice, and totally unnecessary. I got to say goodbye to Bogey again, and so did TJ. While I would have loved to bring him home, I'm sure Bogey is happy to be with his people, and shock collar notwithstanding, he seems to have a pretty good life.

That's the 3rd dog I've found, and returned home. The first was Abby, a black lab who was wandering down the road near our rental house in Bellevue, and the second was a giant malamute belonging to one of our neighbor's visiting sons. That's a pretty good record.

Goodbye Bogey!!