On a dark and stormy night a few weeks ago my son, Ryan, let himself into his apartment in Huntsville. As he opened the door two puppies rushed in ahead of him and made themselves quite at home. He felt that his only option, other than letting them stay, was to push them out again into the bad weather. He did as we had raised him to do....he let them stay.
Now, you may have caught the "his apartment" part. Yes, he lives in an apartment that is completely unsuitable for a dog....much less 2 dogs....and puppies at that. Ryan quickly began looking for their current home or their next home. He knew he couldn't keep them and neither could (or would) we. He called Animal Control in Huntsville to see if they had been reported as lost, he contacted three area veterinarians to see if they knew anything about them. He even took the dogs in to a vet to see if they had locater chips (they did not). He bathed them, bought them flea collars, bought food and collars and leashes. In other words, he took care of them, all the while trying to figure out what to do with them.
It's harder than one might think. Ryan was committed to seeing them to a no-kill shelter and those are not easy to find. Most places seem to be a kind of doggie foster home system. People sign up to keep the dogs in their own homes until they are adopted. It was hard to even get someone to answer the phone in most of those places. On a weekend that he was coming to Houston Ryan brought them home. They stayed in our backyard which meant Floyd, our very territorial dog, stayed in the laundry room which meant Pepper, our very evil cat, had her litter box moved to my bathroom. You can imagine the ripple effect. Ryan took the dogs to our vet to be checked out (our nice vet offers three free stray checks a year) and found out they had worms. This required medicine during their stay and yard treatment after they left. More ripples.
Finally, a little research into the Houston SPCA revealed that they are a no-kill shelter unless the dog is sick or dangerous. It took until Thursday to get an appointment with them so we lived with the dogs worming up our back yard, walking Floyd several times a day, and stepping on kittie litter in our bathroom until then. Ryan came home early the next weekend and took them in. We hope that they are adopted. They really were sweet puppy dogs.
So, what's the lesson? We learned several. One, watch your door on rainy nights lest something slip in you don't want to deal with. Two, Bob Barker was right....we should spay and neuter our pets. Three, you can't be irritated at your thoughtful and sweet child saving a couple of troublesome animals when you have raised him to do that very thing.
We raised our kids to value others and value life in general. We were more apt to throw a bug out of the house rather than kill. We wanted our kids to be good citizens of the planet and be mindful of creatures in need. At the end of the deal - Floyd back in a de-wormed yard, kittie litter back in the laundry room, and puppies to the SPCA - we were incredibly proud of Ryan. His generous heart and sensitive spirit are of great value. He's a good person and I'm happy he did what he did. Oftentimes the best thing to do is a hard thing to do and Ryan did the hard thing with grace and equanimity.
