oh no…NOT three….

i don’t know why, but i’ve never felt too compassionate towards homeless people. i know; there but for the grace of yadda yadda yadda…

but i just never feel it. especially the ones that are holding the “vietnam vet” signs…back then there was a draft. it was go to war, or go to canada. i just don’t know…maybe i’m just too bitter for my own good towards my fellow man…

dogs? that’s a WHOLE different story.

when i see stray dogs, i ALWAYS feel compassionate towards them. especially when i can tell they’re kinda suffering and have been abused. such appears to be the case with “red” (named just so i have a simple way of referring to her in this writing). a full-blooded, large-jawed, emaciated, red pit i happened upon in the heb parking lot when i blew off the gym to come home, do laundry, and “rest”.

she was thin enough to where i thought she was a puppy…but when i got up close, the two inch long nipples hinted she was a bit more mature. when i reached out to pet her head, she cringed down…but once she found out i was friendly, she instantly rolled over so i’d scratch her belly.

she was COVERED in fleas, had some mange on her back, and had a mouth that looks like you could give her the bumper of a 1974 pontiac le mans instead of a rawhide bone and she’s be a happy lil’ thang. due to that LAST physical characteristic, i noticed that when she started to follow me through the parking lot, mothers were snatching up their children out of her way. about half way through the lot she wandered away from me, went back to the “island” of grass, plopped down under a tree, and chilled.

inside, the guy who checked me out said she had been in the lot when he got to work at 1:00, and looked like she’d been there a while. since we were having this conversation at 6:30, i decided the chances that her owners were just inside shopping was pretty slim. but when i came back out after being inside for only ten minutes, she was gone.

i went home and couldn’t get her out of my mind…she was just like MY dogs…TOTALLY sweet and cool, but with a “fuck you up bad” appearance. i got in the car, went back to heb, and she was back under the same tree she went to when i went inside. now i had to call the same animal control folks who had been called out on MY dogs, whom i still hadn’t called on my thing due to my recent show barrage at work. but when i was told that since it was AFTER 5:00, and that i could just “tell them where she was, and they’d leave a note for animal control to get her in the morning”, i decided i would take matters into my own hands.

here was the dilemma: due to her fleas, mange, the HIGH possibility of worms, and just space factor, i couldn’t take her to my house. but then it hit me: my GRANDMOTHER’S house has a fenced in yard, and with her being dead and all, she won’t mind me putting a dog in it over night. so i took off my belt, put it around the dogs neck do i could lead it, and walked red to the car. three minutes later we were pulling up at grandma’s house.

the yard looked like hell (red didn’t bitch) but the gate post on the chain link fence had settled and left gaps. i put her in the back yard, closed the gates THINKING she’d be okay, and went back to the car so i could get her some stuff.

she greeted me at the car. okay; the gates WEREN’T working. i dug in the car and found i had TWO zip ties. i used to one to close the back gate perfectly, but the front one was an issue…the gap was too big for the tie. so i zip tied a steel trash can full of debris to the fence so it set in front of the opening. then i went to the house and got an old collar and the leash my dogs never use anyway. when i got back, red was waiting for me in the front yard.

bitch. (literally)

so, i put the collar on, attached the leash, walked her into the back yard, and tied her to a tree. then it was BACK to heb.

six bucks later she had a food bowl, a water bowl, and food to get her through the night (which she dumped over TWICE before i left her for the night). when i got the collar and leash, i also retrieved a BIG bag of zip ties and tied the hell out of both gates. i also got her one of the tubes of advantage i had at the house, so she should now be flea-free for the next 30 days.

IN THEORY this houdini pit is there for the night. in the morning i’ll go check on her, and then call animal control to come get her. but here’s my deal; i can already feel a bit of an attachment here, and she seems to really like me. as the person who’s done all this for her, i know if owners DON’T come claim her, she could be released back to me for free. i just don’t know if i’m ready for the puppy tribe to grow to three.