Goodbye, Rocky

The past few days have been interesting. A cute little Jack Russell Terrier showed up on our street Sunday and decided he liked it here so much he would just stay. The boys found him walking down our street and fell in love with him. They played with him for a while THEN came and got me. I admit he was extremely adorable (he looks like Eddie from the old show - Frasier) but I told them to leave him alone so he would go back home. Well, he didn't. After it got dark he was still laying on the front porch. So the boys made him a bed out there and gave him water. Eric and I weren't sure what to do. The humane society here is not like the one we knew in Florida. Here, they actually do euthanize animals after a certain time. So that wasn't even an option. He stayed here all night. We walked, with the dog, to the bus stop the next morning and all the kids knew him. His name is Rocky. I spent the entire day calling people (I have made more friends in Auburn than I realized). I finally tracked the owner down and he came and got the dog at around 4 pm yesterday. There were a lot of emotions. Trevor was the most affected by him. He wanted to keep him but felt sorry for him because he thought he might have been missing his family. I was also sad to see him go. Of course Spencer is our animal lover and would keep every homeless animal in the world if he could. Eric played tough guy and said, "We don't need another dog!" Although he did ask me at one point while Rocky was here what we were going to name him! I know him. He liked him too and would have "allowed" us to keep him if we hadn't found his owner. The only one who wasn't crazy about him was NALA!!!

When I finally reached the owner, he didn't seem too alarmed that his precious Rocky had been missing for 24 hours. I would have been out looking for either of my dogs all night until I found them! And I would have been so thankful for the person who cared for them. The past 2 or 3 times Rocky has gone missing, one of my close neighbors have been the ones to find him and call. So he knows that this is the street he goes to! He would have been very easy to find. He wasn't wearing his tags this time so that is why it was so hard for me to find his owner.

One important lesson we all learned from this experience is that there are so many homeless and mistreated dogs out there. IF/WHEN we get another one, we will adopt from the humane society. But the truth of it is, I don't think we have seen the last of little Rocky.