An Adventure!

Yesterday I had scheduled a walk with Mary, a new friend through Education for Ministry.  She was one of the food bringers in November and has also been one of the folks who texts me regularly to check up on me. I was looking forward to seeing her neighborhood, as it's in north Bend, a part of town I don't know.

A female min pin from wikicommons

When I got to her house, however, she told me that she and her husband had captured a lost dog.  She said it had been wandering around and around her neighborhood for a few hours.  She asked if I could help them figure out what to do with it.

The dog was a darling min pin -- Miniature Doberman Pinscher -- wearing a cute pink sweater.  So first off I looked at her tags -- three, none with the phone number, but one of the tags was a chip notice. Then I knew  if we took her to a vet or the humane society we could figure out who owned her.

She seemed hungry and thirsty, so I asked Mary if they had some cheese and we gave her a few big bites of cheese and some water.  Mary's spouse cut a length of turquoise nylon rope for us to use as a leash and we walked around the neighborhood, knocking on doors, once being told by a young girl that she knew where the dog lived but it turned out to be the home of a guy who "used to have a dog like that."

Finally, we bundled the little girl into my car and drove southeast to a curving road that became 27th, road to the Deschutes County Humane society.  The Minigirl sang piteously much of the way but finally Mary's constant petting and reassurance calmed her down.  Once we got to the Humane Society Headquarters, I got some interesting information..

We shoulda called!

Seems that people call in their missing animals to the shelter and that this baby had been called in at about noon.  If we had called, we could have connected with the owners in a few minutes rather than an hour.  They actually lived just a block from another Education for Ministry student and my friend of the past few years, David.  And David and his spouse also live in Mary's neighborhood in the Northern District!

The Humane society gal got on the phone with the owners.  After diligently asking both me and them if phone numbers could be shared, she gave me the phone number.  I called it and spoke to a gentleman on who gave me the pup's address.  I plugged the address into my phone, connected phone and car and unfortunately somehow also turned on the radio station I stream constantly -- Hank's Gumshoe OTR.  After a short time with "The Fat Man" (I think), Mary figured out where we were going and I turned off the phone connection.

When we got the girl home, big man came out to the car.  He was tall and thick with curly gray hair and beard.

"You don't know," he said.  "You don't know.  How important.  Our little girl." He took my hand in an awkward way.  I dropped his hand then he took it again and planted a bill in my fist.  I must have looked shocked at him - I probably raised my brows.  Then he nodded his head.  "Please?"  So I put it in my pocked without looking at it's size.

I got out and opened the back door.  The handsome little dog was on the back seat where she'd been sleeping since the shelter.  She now held up her head. The tip of her little tail wagged the tiniest bit.  She looked quite sheepish and ashamed.

The big man said, "Conchita you bad girl!"  And she leapt into his arms.

Mary and I then drove the few blocks back to her house.  At that point I took the bill out of my pocket.  A picture of America's drunkest president!  

I plan to leave it for housekeeping when I leave the Oxford this morning.

A comment:

I enjoy adventures!  Unexpected moments in life that lead to pleasurable discoveries or difficult life lessons.  Well, the latter I shouldn't really say I enjoy. But learning is always useful.  Is suffering useful?  Or is it necessary?  My goodness.  Some theological questions just snuck into this lovely description of fun with a friend.  Oh well.  Theology is everywhere -- like ideology, power, an the Holy Spirit.

A final comment:

If it's not one thing, it's my mother.  Mom used to talk about going off on adventures.  I'm sure I had many fun adventures with her.