Lucky Dog!

DanG · June 07, 2018, 09:27:28 AM

A little background here: About 4 years ago, a young feral dog took up here. She seemed content in every way except that she was afraid of us. As hard as we tried, we could never put a hand on her, so inevitably she had puppies. When the pups were big enough to travel, she skipped town, leaving behind one little female with an injured leg. We named her "Gimp", and she too has fit in with the other dogs but is just as human-shy as her Mom was. Well since we couldn't get her spayed, she had pups about 5 weeks ago...11 of them!

Unlike her mother, she didn't try to hide them, so I have been able to handle and tame them.

Flash forward to yesterday: I was doing some mowing and on the spur of the moment I decided to knock down some weeds in one of the lesser maintained areas. I got way down in there on the first pass and caught some motion out of the corner of my eye. It was one of the little pups flouncing around with her head stuck in an old tin can. She was a long way, in puppy distance, from her home under the steps of the old sharecropper cabin, and had no idea where she was or where she was going. I left the mower idling and fought through the brush to get to her, picked her up and pulled the can from her head. I walked back to the cabin with her and put her under the steps. I had just mowed there, so the other pups had evacuated the area for the time being. She followed me back to the mower, so I put her on my lap and we rode back to the house across the road and I left her with Linda until I finished mowing. In an hour or so I parked the mower and put her in the truck beside me and drove her back to her steps, where her sibling pups had returned. I tossed her into the pile of pups and ran! Well, it was more like a brisk mosey, but I did the best I could under the circumstances. :D :D The little pup had quite a day, getting her head caught in a can, getting rescued, riding on a lawn mower, going in the house for the first time(she hadn't even seen the house before), meeting all of the curious house cats, then riding in the truck. It must have been quite overwhelming! If I had not made that snap decision to mow that area right then, we would never have even known about any of this, and the pup would have died out there in the woods somewhere. LUCKY DOG!!!

fishpharmer · June 07, 2018, 11:12:22 AM

You saved the ~~day~~ dog! Does "Lucky" look the same as the other pups?

DanG · June 07, 2018, 11:19:13 AM

Pretty much so, Fish. She is brown with white markings like 2 or 3 others, and the rest are black/white. The mama is black as is the suspected baby-daddy, but their granddaddy was brown/white.

Raider Bill · June 07, 2018, 12:13:05 PM

Slap a picture up so we can see these little critters. ;D

Roxie · June 07, 2018, 12:40:07 PM

Quote from: DanG on June 07, 2018, 09:27:28 AMWell, it was more like a brisk mosey

I'm afraid that speed is all too familiar to our ageing members. I can picture you doing that. :D

Like Raider, we would love to see some pictures.

WDH · June 07, 2018, 10:47:00 PM

A brisk mosey? :D :D :D

thecfarm · June 08, 2018, 05:41:36 AM

Yes.Lucky Dog indeed.

Bricklayer51 · June 08, 2018, 08:07:17 AM

A lucky dog for sure I also mosey the last time it was a brisk mosey I was moving some firewood uncovered a inground bees nest it was a brisk mosey with a little hop everytime one of the little buggers nailed me.

DanG · June 08, 2018, 10:14:04 AM

Here's a couple of puppy pix.
This is Lucky. You can see a mark left on her neck by the rusty old can.

Some of the siblings in their safe zone.

Raider Bill · June 08, 2018, 10:40:22 AM

Good looking Pups!

Roxie · June 08, 2018, 12:50:23 PM

Head in the can or not, Lucky doesn't look like she has missed any meals.

You're a good man, DanG.

thecfarm · June 08, 2018, 02:42:00 PM

Wonder what was in the rusty can to get her attention?
Whatever it was is gone now. ;D
Yes,lucky you saw her.

DanG · June 08, 2018, 04:22:18 PM

Well Lucky got lucky again! As I was leaving to run errands in town, I thought I heard a dog crying. As I was pulling out I saw Lucy, my shepherd going into the woods looking real curious, so I pulled over and followed her. There, nestled in a clump of Poison Oak was Lucky the traveler! I took her to the house again. She was looking hungry, so Linda opened a can of cat food and she dived into it. Now I found her about 200 feet from the house, so she was about 800 feet and across the road from her normal spot under the steps. Linda said, "Looks like we got us another dog!"

One of my errands was to buy dog food and when I took it to the shed where I feed them, there was mama dog and all of the pups except Lucky, and they had polished off every crumb of the food I had left out. I think I better run an ad right quick, cause this is gonna get pricey! :D :D

Autocar · June 08, 2018, 06:52:10 PM

Dan you have a great heart I would of done the same thing 8)

DanG · June 08, 2018, 07:59:23 PM

I think most anyone who isn't a psychopath would do the same. ;)

She is in my lap as I type, and seems content. I hope to be able to tame the others as well. I can handle some of them but others are acting like the semi-feral animals they are. I'm about to go out and feed up, so I'll take Lucky with me. I'm nervous about leaving her out there, but she still needs her mama since the weening process isn't yet complete and mama won't come anywhere near me.