Pooches in the Night

So we live in a neighborhood that's rural enough to have unfettered dogs strolling about.  I know all of these dogs by name - my favorite, Daisy, used to come "knock" on the back door until we let Gertie out.  The sight of my cranky, elderly weiner beagle tackling an insanely happy yellow lab was always a lot of fun, particularly as it irritated my cat enough that she once took matters into her own hands and jumped into the middle of the fray, beating both startled dogs soundly about the ears before leaping onto the porch railing with a "so there!" look on her face.

Daisy still drops by from time to time, but you can sense her disappointment every time Gertie doesn't come out the door, and she doesn't stick around very long.

Last night I was taking my evening stroll and bumped into a couple of neighbors, who inquired about the identity of the large boxer mix that was standing a couple of yards down, barking at them.  After I identified that dog, they said, "Well what about that pit bull?"

We don't have any free-roaming pit bulls in our neighborhood.  Turns out that this one had showed up yesterday, and was following folks around when they were outside.  I told my neighbors I didn't know of any pit bulls, and joked about putting the cat inside, then finished my walk.

Later, Hublet was taking out the trash, when he stuck his head in the door and said, "The cat's in, right?  'Cause that pit bull's out here."

I went outside, and sure enough, there was a fully-grown, un-neutered, solid white pit bull on my sidewalk. He was still wearing the invisible fence shock collar, but there was no other collar on him.

And boy, was he happy to see me!  He was wagging and wiggling and trotted right over and sniffed my hand and let me pet his MASSIVELY MUSCLED HEAD.  He looked a bit thin, and had drunk all the water I'd left out for the cat, so I got him another bowl to drink, and thought about trying to corral him.  But he finished the water and ran off before I could do anything, and so I headed inside to post a "has anyone misplaced a pit bull?" message on the community message board.  My neighbors had said something about animal control, so I didn't call them.

I don't have any experience with pit bulls beyond the horror stories you read in the paper, and I have to admit I was a bit nervous about having a stray wandering the neighborhood.  Seeing him up close and personal, and looking at those jaws, didn't really do much to make me feel better, even though he was a friendly pooch.  All I could think about was, "That dog could eat my face clean off with one medium-sized chomp."

And also?  Who in their right mind would think that a teeny tiny shock collar and invisible fence was gonna work on an animal that size?  He probably got startled by a firecracker, or a nearby dog was in heat, or maybe there was a really nifty squirrel nearby, and off he went.

I'm beginning to feel as though my home is some sort of hobo stop for wayward animals, strays or not.  We have a steady stream of dog traffic on a daily basis, lived through the Random Great Dane incident of Aught five, the Random Cat Hitchhiker previous to that, and our cat followed Hublet home one day and just stuck around.  Apparently Hublet has the Magical Cat Attractor Vibe, and dogs just like our yard, or something.

Ah, country living.  As long as I don't end up with any random crowing-challenged roosters, like the neighbor behind us did, I guess I can deal.