It's a Dog's Life

Dog-days - the beasts have turned up everywhere lately!

My neighbours have gone away for 2 weeks, yet again leaving me in charge of feeding their menagerie of birds, fish - but this time they took the dogs with them. However, just before they left, they said, "by the way - we were looking after another neighbour's dog, and don't know if they've found someone else to do it, so look in on it now and then, OK?" Great...

Didn't have time to this morning (and assumed they'd do it before leaving), but when I checked in on Captain at lunchtime, he was cold, thirsty and hungry. No food, no water, and had to sleep exposed to a very freezing night on the back verandah, though sheltered from the wind and the hail by a half-wall. Poor beast. He also had two large ticks on him - which is more worrying than the food/water thing, as tick-bite fever is what killed my lapdog a year back. Later today I'm off to the vet to get him some Frontline. Wonder what his owners think of his lack of being looked after? When they went away last year, they left their other dog (now deceased) in the care of someone who knew nothing of dogs. I ended up taking him to the vet, after noticing his eyes were so sore that he kept them shut when walking around!

In addition to poor Captain, I've had another strange dog that seems to want to move in with me. "Colonel", a brown & white terrier with huge paws, has been hanging around my gate, chatting to my two dogs for the past 2 days. Yesterday I called the number on his collar and met up with his owner a kilometre away to return him. Today he was back, and I had to phone again! He LOVES my place it seems... He's very friendly and "grins" with his lips back over his teeth a bit when I scratch his back. But still, he can't move in with me - really he can't! The only thing he got out of me today was a tummy rub and a handful of Pedigree to keep him in one place until his owner arrived.

Dunno why, but I always seem to end up a dog-magnet. Everything that's lost or neglected or in need of a scratch turns up at my door, or under my desk if they're just wandering the building. It's how I inherited two of the three dogs I had. Owner neglect, so I took them in!

Either I'm way too soft-hearted, or just care a good deal more about man's best friend than others do.