On Charla, Pico and Bob...

The odds weren't very good, but within an hour of hanging up these flyers around my neighborhood, this dog (named "Charla") was reunited with her owners.

Trevor and I had found her on my street drinking out of a gutter after church last Sunday. She was clean, in good health, knew how to "sit" and walk on a leash - all signs of a dog with a home. But making FOUND DOG signs is almost like playing the lottery. Very few lost dogs ever find their way back home. And in this economy, many dogs are being dumped or intentionally set loose because their owners can no longer afford to keep them.

Cases in point: Right before Christmas, a little Boston Terrier made his way to my front porch. He had worms, mange and wasn't in overall good health. My neighbors (not the Toolsons) took him in, and put up FOUND DOG posters in the neighborhood. A lady called about him, but she wasn't his owner. She had found the same dog just a few months before, and reunited him with his family - a family that didn't really seem excited to have him back, and did nothing but chain him up in the backyard and ignore him. She told my neighbors where the little dog lived, but recommended against returning him. To make ourselves feel better, though, we hung FOUND DOG posters up and down the former owners block to see if they cared enough to even call about their missing pet. They didn't. The little dog (now named "Pico") is now a permanent resident in my neighbor's house. His previous health issues are now a distant memory. He is living the good life.


And then there was Bob last spring. He was tied to a tree on Abrams next to a sign that read "Free Beagle". A friend of mine picked him up, and brought him to my house. Normally, I would have taken him in, but one of my dogs was sick. Instead, we found a place for him that night, and got him a reservation at Operation Kindness the next morning. I don't know what happened to Bob after that, but he disappeared from Operation Kindness' website over the summer, so I am assuming the little guy was adopted.


Even though both Pico and (hopefully) Bob have moved onto to better lives, it was still gratifying to know that there are dogs out there that simply get lost. They have happy homes, but get out of yards or houses accidentally. Their owners, frantic with worry, are out there looking for them. It is, after all, some what rare that FOUND DOG flyers posted on neighborhood utility poles actually work. But when they do, it makes it all worth it somehow. It gives me hope, at least.