After my ride Friday, I was driving back down our mountain when I saw cars going off the road in front of me, on both sides. The source was a little wirehair terrier mix, looking very confused and trying to decide which way to go. There are loose dogs out here in the boonies all the time, and dogs get dumped all the time. He was clearly dumped. Loose dogs run around with a purpose and a big grin.

No collar, no tats.

So I stopped and got him - brought him home, introduced him to Ambassador Zoe (my younger, smaller dog) to play while I called Animal Control, the local vet to report I had found him should anyone be looking. Then I made flyers and dropped them off at the grocery and post office, my usual routine. I didn't expect a call.

Saturday afternoon, a man calls and says the dog is his, it was his mothers but that she passed away in February. He must have escaped from the yard, yadda yadda. He'd call me later in the afternoon to come by and pick him up.

Only, he never called. At 8pm I called him back, and got some other fellow on the phone. I hear a hand covering the reciever, and then yelling, and then I am hung up on. I called back and got the answering machine, left a message to call me back.

By the way, this dog is not interested in escaping. He's very well mannered, housebroken, crate trained, never even dug a hole in my yard. Clearly Momma was good to him.

Heard nothing all day Sunday. Nothing all day today. I decided he was truthfully abandoned and it was time to find him a home, so I did my usual round of posts on sites for that earlier this evening.

Tonight, at 9:20, a little kid calls me and asks if I still have the dog - identified him with the same name (FootFoot). I said I did, then asked to talk to a grownup. They want to pick him up tomorrow evening, now.

I was hot. Very hot. I asked what happened Saturday? Three days have passed since then, you know?

He says "Oh, we went out of town, we just got back a little bit ago."

Me: "And you didn't know this when you called me Saturday? Don't you think you should have called me?"

Him "Ummmm"

Me: "I am NOT a Doggy Daycare. I figured you had decided you didn't want him and have already put up ads for a new home."

Him: "Well, we'll come get him tomorrow around 6:30..."

My thought on all this is it's bullsh!t. They dumped him, maybe they did leave town, and by now they have seen their kid is broken up over the loss of grandma's dog and decided they'd better get him. I don't want to return him, ten to one they will just dump him again later and tell the kid he ran away again.