Pawsitive Outcome
One day, during a snow day, I decided to take a walk from my apartment complex through the neighborhood behind it to enjoy the snow. I hadn’t gotten too far when I came across a dog (I’m a cat person, so I’m not good with dog breeds, but I think it might have been a Shih Tzu).
The dog is obviously very cold but also happy to see me, and after a few minutes of pets, I decide to follow it either to let its owners know that it got out or if it didn’t know where it was to help it find its owners.
After a few minutes of wandering, it becomes clear that the dog does not know where it is, so I decide to look up the local animal shelter, but they’re closed. I call my mom to see if she knows what to do, and while she doesn’t, halfway through the call, I remember that I have a friend who works at the animal shelter, so I give him a call.
He doesn’t know what to do either, so I decided to ask around the neighborhood, which involved following the dog up to someone’s house and knocking on the door. While the people I talked to for the most part didn’t know who the dog belonged to, they offered to call me if they found something. The dog, craving warmth, would dart inside when the doors opened and would paw at the door when it was time to go.
Eventually, one of the neighbors volunteered to help. He knew the neighborhood better than I did and knew who to ask about missing dogs. While we didn’t get any closer to finding who the dog belonged to, another neighbor volunteered to help us, and we took the dog to her house to warm up while she made some calls.
While the calls didn’t provide any more clues about the dog, someone suggested we take it to the animal hospital to see if it was chipped, so the four of us hopped into the car, dropped me off at my apartment, and then took the dog to the animal hospital.
A few hours later, I got a text to let me know that the dog had been reunited with her family, and a mom with two young kids came to pick her up. Apparently, a maintenance worker had left a gate open, and the dog slipped out, but thanks to some awesome neighbors, the dog was able to be reunited with its family!
