Inspiration in the Neighborhood

On our innumerable walks around the neighborhood, Ray and I have met many dogs and their people. Sometimes we meet people and dogs that inspire us.

We knew that one couple had multiple dogs because every time we walked by their house two or three or four dogs would be in the window barking at us. And whenever we would see one or the other of the couple walking, there would be two or three dogs at the end of a leash. And last year, when I finally asked the man-half of the couple how many dogs they had, he replied with a guarded look on his face, "I really couldn't say."

I thought this was a slightly unusual response and didn't pursue the matter because he obviously didn't want to reveal the exact number (there are local ordnances regulating the number of dogs/household). The man told me that they were active in a local dog rescue and had fostered many dogs so the number fluctuated. The thing that I found out last week was that the woman-half of the couple has a real soft-spot for un-adoptables.

She was sitting on her front porch watching a little dog scampering around the yard. As always, Ray and I stopped to chat and we got meet Daisy, the Chihuahua and Peyton, the mixed breed.

Daisy had had a stroke and moved like a sailor on shore leave. Her tongue lolled out one side of her mouth and she was incontinent. She was also the happiest little dog and would faint (that's what it looked like) (Ray's version is a flop) to expose her belly whenever her owner bent over to pet her.

Daisy

Ray tried to get close enough to get a sniff of the little dog but Daisy would scoot out of the way every time he got near. Usually this sets Ray to yelling but this time he just cocked his head to one side quizzically. He couldn't track her because she wasn't wearing a jingling tag and she was just too zoomie. I tried to get Daisy to come to me so that I could get a picture but she obviously thought we were playing and would zip circles around the bushes. Her owner scooped her up so that I could take a quick pic of the cutie, then brought out her other favorite, Peyton.

Peyton was a new addition. He had been found at the side of the road starving and has something wrong with his legs. He doesn't move well. His owner told me that they have put plastic runners all through the house so that Peyton can stay on his feet, otherwise his legs skid out from under him on the tile floors. She said that they had managed to get some weight on him but that recently he had stopped eating. They were worried.

Daisy, scampering, and Peyton, relaxing

I thought of how how much life-rearranging needs to take place to house dogs like this and found myself thinking how very EASY Ray is in comparison.

Like I said before, sometimes we meet people and dogs that inspire us.