We've been adopted

[theletch1]

Last saturday I was in the back yard splitting wood when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. It turned out to be a 6 or 8 month old black lab. He was friendly, energetic and got along well with Tucker (my 1 year old mix breed). I'd never seen him around before but stopped cutting long enough to play with him for a few minutes. He spent the entire day hanging around our property. Sunday morning I came outside to walk Tucker and saw the lab across the creek at the shop of the guy that owns the orchard we live in. I approached him to ask if the dog belonged to him. He said "No" and we discussed the dog for awhile and noticed that his throat had a gash in the loose skin. Now, Fred is a grumpy lookin' fella and you'd never think he had a soft spot for critters by looking at him...but, he keeps food at the shop for all the stray cats in the area and took the lab to the vet on monday to get his neck stitched up. He can't keep the dog at his place because he travels so much on business so he just brought him back to the shop to let him go where he wanted...he wanted to be at our place. So, for the last week every time I come home I'm met by a hyper active pup. We've made him a place to sleep on our porch (it's enclosed), kept him fed and kept an eye on his stitches. We haven't seen any missing dog signs for him around town so I guess we now have two dogs. We're thinking of naming him Ronin since he was wandering the countryside looking for a new master.

Any one else been adopted by animals lately? Let's hear the story.

 

[Lisa]

Last year my daughter was working at a pet rescue shelter and someone surrendered a shitzu Laso Apso cross. He was 5 years old. No one seemed to want him and my daughter fell in love with him. After much begging and crying, Walter came home to live with us. He is the cutest little guy.

Recently we put our dog of 13 1/2 years down. She was old and arthritic, completely deaf and losing the rest of her faculties. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. To help fill the void in our lives, we recently acquired a Pug/Boston Terrier Cross and named him BUG. He is 4 months old.

 

[ArmorOfGod]

Several months ago, I found a small puppy in front of the store that my wife manages. In fact, it was one of my first threads here. He was small then, but he is not small now and is a sweet dog. He is still a bit clumsy, but I like him.
My wife named him "Ollie" after the orphan Oliver Twist. I like to think it is a Green Arrow reference. He was eat up with the mange, but we got it cured and now he is a happy sheapard/something mix.
In my life, the cast-off animals have always turned out to be the best pets.

AoG

 

[Flying Crane]

My brother was out on his daily run. A young dog just joined up with him, kept pace for the rest of the run and came home with him. He never left. That was several years ago.

 

[theletch1]

My brother was out on his daily run. A young dog just joined up with him, kept pace for the rest of the run and came home with him. He never left. That was several years ago.

Ya know, I think it adds a little something extra to the mix when it's the critter picking you instead of the other way around. Some folks don't believe it but I firmly believe that animals have an intuitive sense about people, at least domestic animals anyway.

 

[Kacey]

Sable and I adopted each other the Denver Dumb Friends' League - I went looking for a puppy, and (somewhat to my surprise) found one I liked on the first visit. Here was this scrawny, fluffy, 5-pound puppy (9 weeks old) sitting on the lap of a 6' 2" teenage girl who used to volunteer walking dogs (she's one of my TKD students, just to make it more interesting) - he was too small to walk on a leash. He was literally a handful - and not a big handful, either. A staffer brought him to the visiting room and he licked my face - and that was it!

He's 3 1/2 now - and for those who've been following the saga of my idiot animal and the hacky sack, he's recovering beautifully, no infection apparent, and he gets his staples out on Tuesday - which is good, because this "don't let him out without a leash, even in the yard" direction from the vet is bad for both of us! He's getting kind of antsy, too, not being able to run around.

 

[Jonathan Randall]

Ya know, I think it adds a little something extra to the mix when it's the critter picking you instead of the other way around. Some folks don't believe it but I firmly believe that animals have an intuitive sense about people, at least domestic animals anyway.

I think you're right.

 

[Jade Tigress]

I think you're right.

Me too. That's an awesome story.

When we were in our house in Tennessee we had a large wrap around porch. Stray cats always seemed to find their way under our porch for shelter but many were very shy and in spite of our placing food and water out for them they would take off.

Then we had a sweet orange and white tabby show up. He adopted us for sure. Unfortunately, one of our two JRT's at the time is a very aggressive cat hater, otherwise I would have a cat now.

Even so, this cat would always try to come in the house. We bought a kennel and put it in the carport corner snuggled up against the house for shelter. Put warm blankies in it and covered it in the winter. The kids named him "Cream Puff". I took him to the vet and got him vaccinated. He lived with us for about year, but started getting kind of skinny in spite of being well fed. One morning we woke up to found our beloved Cream Puff dead on the front lawn. We were heartbroken. He obviously had a disease of some sort that we were unaware of. I miss that cat.

 

[Kacey]

He obviously had a disease of some sort that we were unaware of. I miss that cat.

Yeah, but think how much better his last year was than it would have been without you - he was wanted, fed, had a warm place to sleep - without your famiy he'd have had none of that.