Soapbox

So I’ve got this kid… and last week she brought home a pit bull.

   Katie spent her senior year’s internship working at the Franklin County Dog Shelter. She would come home covered with hair, de-wormer medicine and overflowing with love for all the dogs there, large and small.
   On the night of July 3rd as she was coming home around 11 PM and a big pit bull ran out in front of her car just a few blocks from our house and she narrowly avoided hitting him. She stopped to see if he was alright, saw he had no collar and, worried that he wouldn’t be so lucky with the next car that came along, she did what any bleeding heart dog lover would do. She opened the back door and whistled.
    The dog hopped happily in the car, and she drove home.
    "Um, dad" she phoned from the curb outside. "Could you come outside? And… bring a leash?"

   I admit I was taken aback when I threw on a sweater and joined them on the front porch. The dog was huge, and clearly at least one parent was a pit bull. Other than the pit bull-ish features it was quite good looking, very healthy and despite being with total strangers and unnerved by the firecrackers the neighborhood a**holes were setting off all around, seemed gentle enough. Katie put the dog on Boomer’s old leash and said she was going to walk him around the neighborhood for a while, hoping to encounter someone out looking for him.
   "Honey, I"m not sure it’s a good idea for you to walk around after dark" I said.
   "Mom- I"m walking a pit bull!" she pointed out, and what could I say? So I went to bed.
     After she returned she and her dad sat out front for another hour under the porch light, hoping someone would drive past and spot him there. No success. So she put the dog, an old scrap of rug and a bowl of water in the garage, and she curled up on the bench seat that had been removed from my van,  to keep him company.
   When I opened the door and peered out in the morning, Katie was asleep on the seat, curled tightly under a small corner of the blanket. The dog had pulled the rest ont o the floor and was laying on it. He saw me and wagged politely.
   Wow. A pit bull in my house. Guess I’d better feed it.

    We weren’t sure how Rocket and he would take to each other- the dog could have put Rocket’s entire head in his mouth! But they met, Rocket gave a warning "I’m the boss" growl or two, the dog backed away immediately, and things were cool.
    From her months working at the dog shelter, Katie knew that if this guy was not claimed by his owners within 3 days, they would euthanize him.
   "They don’t put pits up for adoption, mom. They  don’t want people taking them just to make them fight. I don’t want to take him there if we don’t have to. Can we keep him here for a few days?" And what could I say to that?
   At first I was worried that this dog, obviously still quite young, would just destroy my house. Pit bulls, after all, are legendary for their jaw power. But this fellow would grab up one of Rocket’s little stuffed "babies" and chew and chew on it- and leave it without a mark! I was amazed.
    Katie made up a bunch of fliers and put them up all over the neighborhood and we hoped for a phone call soon. In the meantime, we figured we needed to call him something other than "the dog" and eventually settled on "Moose". It was appropriate to his big gallumphing size yet gentle nature, and it also seemed very appropriate: we already had a "Rocket J. Squirrel" so now we had "Bullwinkle Moose."

   By the end of that first morning, I was in love with Moose. By the end of the next day, I think that, if he hadn’t been a pit bull, I"d have driven around the neighborhood and taken down the fliers so we could just keep him. He was the most sweet, funny and endearing dog I’ve met. When I was working in the garden, Moose tried to steal my trowel to play with. When I put a stop to that, he went after the small sycamore log I had pulled from the firewood pile to prop the sprinkler head where I wanted it. I shooed him away and tucked the log under the sprinkler. Moose watched me, and after a minute, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him slowly stalk up behind me, lean his head forward and delicately grab the edge of the log with his teeth and pull it out from under the sprinkler.
   "Moose!" I yelled and he snatched up his prize and went running away delightedly, all long legs and flopping ears, begging me to chase him to get it back. So of course I did, laughing all the while.

    But all good things come to an end. After 3 days Katie decided to take fliers to all the local vets offices and out to the dog shelter. That evening, while she was at a friends’ house, she got a call. The woman described her missing dog and when Katie said  "Yep- I"m pretty sure he’s in my back yard" the woman started to cry with relief. Katie came home and she and I put Moose in her car. The woman lived only about 5 blocks from us. Unnerved by the fireworks, Moose had slipped his collar and jumped the fence only a block or so from where Katie had encountered him.
    When we turned onto the street, we could see a woman and two young girls standing on the sidewalk, looking hopefully at our car.
    "Moose- you have kids! You didn’t tell me you had little girls!" I admonished. When they saw his big head through the window, the girls started jumping up and down and the woman put her hands to her mouth. They all rushed to the car before Katie even ahd the engine turned off.
   "Oh, it’s him! It’s Buddy! Oh Buddy, we were so worried about you!! I can’t believe you’re OK!" They swarmed him as he hopped happily out of the backseat. A door across the street opened and a neighbor came out- "Hey- Buddy is back!" (Buddy? No way. You should consider "Moose" instead)
    Well it was the best of all possible endings. The woman, tearful in her gratitude, offered Katie a reward, which she turned down. We said goodbye and drove back home quietly.   We were happy… yet a little sad.
    "I miss Moose" I said the next morning to no one in particular. "If I hear those people aren’t taking good care of him, I"m gonna have to steal him back."

    If there is a dog god, he sent Moose to Katie’s car, I must tell you. How many other people would have taken a stray pit into their back seat? And for his part, Moose made it pretty clear to us that we are ready for another dog in our life. We watched Moose chase Boomer’s beloved kong and walk on Boomer’s leash and were just happy to see them put to use. I think we’ll start actively looking for another dog to love pretty soon.
   I’d like a herding dog. I"ve been looking at Youtube videos of Australian shepherd puppies and falling hopelessly in love. We missed out on Boomer’s puppyhood, so it would be wonderful to see what he must have been like.
  I"m sure we’ll find a lovely dog some day. Of course, he won’t be Moose…