2000-April 29, 2016

On a June day in 2001, my friend Marie and I were driving along a rural county road when we came upon this large tan dog standing in the middle of the road. She had no collar, but a faded reddish stain around her neck hinted she had probably worn one at some point. I stopped the truck and the dog came right up to it and seemed to want a ride. We drove up and down the road stopping at each house asking if the residents knew the dog. Of course, the answer was always, "No." Sometimes very emphatically, which made me think there was more to that answer about which the person was not admitting. After about an hour of canvasing, we gave up and headed home with the dog in the back seat. At some point during the ride home, Marie said, "You WERE going to pick her up, weren't you?" To which I responded, "Uh...well...I...uh...not exactly." We did all the things you're supposed to do to find the dog's owner, but that person never appeared. We decided we would take the dog, then "Big Dog," later "Big Girl," to obedience classes to make her more adoptable. An adoption ad was put in the paper, but the only response we received was from a trucker who wanted to make her his ride along companion. Something told us that this was not a good idea. We were beginning to see behavior that may have landed her on the streets to begin with. So here we are, almost 14 years later.