Feliz Cumpleaños a mi

Ok, yeah, so today's my 30th birthday. But that's beside the point. I have a story to tell that has inspired me to finally break my blog-silence.

As a pregnant chick, I'm destined to get hungry. Today, I hadn't eaten any breakfast, and by 10:00 I was ready to gnaw on my own left hand. (Being a righty, and all.)

So I set out for the nearest McDonald's, about a mile down the road, for a biscuit or two and some OJ. Gotta keep up that folic acid intake!

Anyhoo, no sooner did I pull into the parking lot, that I spotted a stray dog in said lot. I jumped out of the truck and tried to coax her to get in, since she was wandering about and the corner we were standing on is a busy intersection. It was also already over 90 degrees out, and it is forecasted to be 104 today.

She didn't understand "Get in the truck, sweetie!" so I tried another tactic. A weird lady came out of the McD's, shoeless and mumbling. (Don't ask me, folks...I just relay the story, I don't make this shit up.) This lady had a case of The Crazy, and started telling me she didn't know where the dog came from, although not exactly in complete sentences.

So I asked Crazy Lady to keep an eye on PupDawg, and I went inside and got a cup of water and a plain biscuit.

When I came out, all of a sudden Crazy Lady's story changed. She began mumbling something about dogsitting her friend's dog, how she had gotten out of her collar, blah blah blah.

She then proceeded to grab two handfuls of PupDawg's scruff and DRAGGED her across the parking lot toward the intersection. I very sternly said, "Ma'am, do not drag her by the neck like that. She needs a collar and a leash. Do not drag her."

Crazy mumbled something back about the dog getting out of her collar, and continued to drag the poor dog toward the busy street. I told her again to stop, and that I was going to call the cops.

Crazy Lady let go of the dog lickety split, mumbled something about kicking my ass, and kept walking. She didn't come back.

PupDawg then came back to me. I fed her several pieces of biscuit and she drank water from the cup. She was very gentle with the food and seemed really sweet. She wagged her tail and stayed next to me.

She had short white hair with black ticking, black ears and cheeks, and a white and black-ticked stripe on her nose and forehead. I'd describe her as a "cow dog," very similar to the Aussie type Shepherds used by ranchers in my part of the country. She was obviously not taken care of- dirty coat full of burrs, ears filthy, at least one small tick on her face, and thin. No collar or tags, of course. By the looks of her, she is full grown but not very old- her teeth were in good shape, and her belly was taut, so she had not likely had any puppies before.

A guy who had been eating in McD's came out when he saw me coaxing the dog to get into the cab of the truck. He offered to pick her up and put her in, and I was grateful. I'd have done it myself, but with strays, you never know how the dog will react.

She was just fine with him picking her up. We drove around for almost half an hour, with me on my cell phone calling every place my husband could get a phone number for. He was exasperated with me- he knows my softness for dogs of any kind, especially strays, and the last stray I found became Lucy, our youngest dog.

I promised him that I was not going to bring this dog home, that I would call every rescue I could think of before taking her to the city shelter.

With him feeding me numbers out of the phonebook, I called five or six places with no luck. Everyone is full. So I reluctantly drove out north to the city shelter. PupDawg did very well on the drive, sitting and looking out the windows, and eventually laying down on the bench seat and resting her wee dirty head on my thigh. *melt* I petted her head and rubbed her ears as we drove, and promised her she was going to be OK and that I'd try to get her rescued from the shelter before it was too late.

Tomorrow is my day to volunteer with the animal rescue group I've been working with for about 9 months. I'm going to tell them about this sweet and cute doggie, and see if they can get her from the shelter and find her a forever home.

My hopes are high that she will not be euthanized, but will be adopted. She's very cute, sweet natured, medium size, young enough to be trained, and in my opinion, very adoptable. At least she is not wandering near a busy intersection in 100 degree heat!

On the way back to work after leaving her at the shelter, I told my husband on the phone that I have decided to call her "Biscuit."

*sigh*

What a birthday it has been so far.