The Tale of Two Lost Dogs

I am very much a dog lover.

And my dog is very much a dog magnet.

Yesterday evening, around 8:30, two friends and I were walking out the door when we spotted two dogs roaming the neighborhood. One was an older yellow Lab, and the other was a young, Basenji-looking fellow.

Both wore collars, and the Lab appeared to have an identification tag.

Naturally, we tried to catch them.

Naturally, they wanted nothing to do with us.

So I called in my trusty dog whisperer, Kodie.

The dogs immediately ran up to Kodie, delighted to make a new friend.

Jackpot!

Works every time.

We took the dogs into my backyard, where we discovered that neither had any identification after all.

We were already running late, so we decided to leave them safely in the yard and figure out what to do when we returned.

That plan lasted approximately two steps.

The smaller dog slipped right through the railings on my deck and trotted after us, apparently under the impression that he'd been invited along.

Now what?

After much discussion, we reluctantly decided to let both dogs go, hoping they'd find their way home or that someone would locate their owners.

We opened the gate, and the two dogs trotted down the street as though they'd enjoyed their visit but had other appointments to keep.

We went on with our evening, feeling terrible about leaving them.

Around 11:30, we returned home.

And there, curled up together in front of my fence gate, were our two visitors.

They blinked their sleepy eyes at us.

Thank goodness you're home. We've been waiting. We're exhausted.

Evidently, my house had been selected as their new residence.

We stood in the driveway discussing our options, while the dogs followed us everywhere, seemingly eager to join the conversation.

Their vote was unanimous.

We all go inside and live happily ever after.

Unfortunately, I couldn't adopt two mystery dogs in the middle of the night.

So I fed them dinner, wrote a note explaining the situation, and made arrangements to take them to the overnight drop-off at Animal Control.

When we arrived, I called the posted number to obtain the door code.

The officer asked a series of questions.

Then he asked, "What kind of dogs are they?"

I described the older yellow Lab and his younger companion.

"Hey! I know those dogs!" he exclaimed. "I've impounded them three or four times!"

Excuse me?

Apparently, these two were regular customers.

The officer explained that their owners always came to retrieve them.

That made me feel better.

Kind of.

Armed with the door code, we entered the building. My friend went ahead to open one of the kennels.

And that's when things got really interesting.

The dogs walked straight into the kennel.

No hesitation.

No confusion.

They simply went inside, sat down, and looked at us.

Thanks! We're exhausted. We'll take our usual room.

My friend and I burst out laughing.

Clearly, they are all too familiar with the accommodations at Animal Control.

As we turned to leave, a stray cat came trotting leisurely down the walkway in front of the building, apparently curious about the new arrivals.

My friend looked at the cat.

"Maybe we should catch it and tell them we found it on Animal Control's doorstep!"

We nearly died laughing.

By then, it was around 1:30 in the morning, and I'd had quite enough of the neighborhood's wandering animal population.

I went home and went to bed, relieved that the dogs were safe and reasonably certain they knew the place better than I did.