loose dog

Okay, so before I continue the story below here's what happened today. I'm at work and I hear my name being paged over the loud speaker. I pick up and the secretary says," Sally, there's a lady on the phone, a Noreen Stahm, that says one of your dogs got loose and she thinks it's Chance. No way, I 'm thinking, all the dogs were in the house when I left just an hour and a half ago, and Chance would not leave the property, the furthest he would go would be down the driveway and into my mothers house.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Hi Sally, this is Noreen ."
" Hi Noreen." I said. "What's going on?" I know Noreen from the therapy dog club, her dog Mattie and Chance were pals during therapy outings. Mattie , sadly passed away about a year or so ago.

"Well, Noreen said, I have some people here that I think has your Chance in the back seat of their car. Here I'll let you talk to the lady."

"Hello?" a voice came over the line.
"Hi, I said , Noreen says you have Chance?"
"Yes." she replied. "We found him up on old Sunbury road."

Oh man, I'm thinking , that's not Chance, must be Steeler or Bentley. "I'll come right home." I said. "Can you meet me at my house?" Yikes, Not too much of an imposition!
"Sure." she said.
"Just pull in to the end of the driveway near the garage and I"ll meet you there in five minutes."
Thankfully my job knows how important my dogs are and that they come first before anything else. I quickly headed out to my car and headed home. Don't you know that just as I got over the bridge the Canada Train line comes through stopping traffic! I hoped it was not going to be a 15 minute stop and wait as it normally is. Sometimes this line has a hundred cars on it. What the heck are they transporting here any way!
The wait was short and I was soon pulling into my driveway. There at the end stood a very nice, dark, shiny new car. I could see what I thought was two people in the front, but my Newf's heads are so big and their hair long and wavy that I thought it could be a dog in the passenger side. I did not see anything in the back of the car.
As soon as I stopped my car to get out a gentleman and his wife stepped out from this lovely new car, but still no sight of a Newfoundland inside.
"Hello, I'm Sally" I said as I approached the car. Wanting to keep a smile on my face for all the trouble one of my dogs may have put them through, and wondering if I could head off any possible anger. Some people just don't take kindly to dogs believe it or not!
The man was very cordial , as was the lady.
"Hello, the lady said, we found this dog running on old Sunbury Road and was afraid he would be hit by a car."

"I really appreciate that you took him in." I said. Still, I saw no sign of a dog as I quickly glanced from a distance through the rear window. "How did you know to contact Noreen, do you know her?"

"Oh, no, the lady said, we remembered the article in the paper when her therapy dog died and we were hoping she could help us identify this dog."

Ah, finally putting two and two together , Steeler and Chance both wear their therapy dog tags on their collar.

"He's kinda muddy." the gentleman said. "Looks like he went through a swamp."

The women went to open the back car door and as I got closer, I saw a very large, very tired, and very muddy Newfoundland sprawled out on the back seat of what was once nice clean shiny leather! Oh what a mess!

"So is this Chance?" the man asked .

"Nope, I said, it's his brother Steeler. Did he come to you right away or did you have to try and catch him?"

"Oh, the lady said, well at first we thought it was a bear from the mountains so we just watched him a bit, then we looked a little closer and he came right to us tail wagging. Once we saw the yellow therapy tag I thought about Noreen. "

"I sure do appreciate this." I replied. "I've got five of 'em , but usually it' Steeler or his dad that gets loose and runs the neighborhood ."

"Five?" the man asked in surprise. "Of these?"

After a pleasant chat I showed them where the dogs were kept in the backyard should this unfortunate but rare occurrence ever happen again.

"Just put him right through this gate back here and he'll be safe." I said.

"Well how do you suppose he got out today?" the lady asked.

"It looks like my son went to work through the front door and did not close it." I said. "If the main inside door is not closed the dogs can open the screen door and get out. The front yard fencing is not a secure as the back."

Once they left, I quickly went inside to take a head count to make sure the others were where they were supposed to be. Thankfully they were and I headed back to work.

Just another day in what I like to call "Wally's World!" Taken from the movie National Lampoons Vacation.