How an adandoned dog found a home with us

This morning started out like any other morning. Alarm went off even though I begged it not to. Got up, fed kids, get them ready. During this time, we heard a dog howling off and on outside. When I first heard it, I thought it was my middle son playing around but it wasn't. So then I assumed that it was one of the neighbors dogs as I had seem them get new dogs not that long ago.

So we go to leave, I open the door and there is a cute little dog. She was shivering because it was cold outside and she lowered herself to the ground, though you could tell she wanted to come to me.  I'm a sucker for a cute face and made friends with her. I noticed that she had on a beautiful rose dog collar.   Even though we have a fenced in yard, I thought she had somehow squeezed in through the small crack by our gate. I stood in the alley and looked down where I thought she might live but didn't see anyone out and about yet. The kids piled into the car, all looking at the dog, very much interested (we didn't have any pets).  I hated to leave her but I didn't know what to do with her since I had seen some of their dogs roaming at different times before (something I don't approve of).   I sat in the car and left my door open, that sweet little face staring up at mine. With a sigh, I lifted her into the car and put her in the passenger seat. I decided I would try to look for her owners when I got back.  On the way to school, the kids said hey maybe we could keep her but I said no, we couldn't, she belonged to someone else.

I dropped the kids off at the back gate at school and made sure they were safely in the school yard. I go back home but still don't see anyone out and about (who I thought it was has kids that go to the same school my kids do and usually I see them in the neighborhood).  I wasn't quite sure what to do with this sweet doggy.  My heart was melting faster then a carton of ice cream left out in the son on a hot day but I knew that she wasn't mine, and she had to go back to her owners. 

I went back towards the house and she followed me. She stopped at the back door and I went inside and grabbed a can of dog food. Yeah, we don't have any pets but I have a ton of cat and dog food. Why? Because we've been planning on getting a dog and cat soon and I've been using all of these free or buy one get one free  So anyone, I open the can and head back outside. I thought that I'd put it out at the end of our driveway so that she could eat it and hopefully her owners would come. I wasn't comfortable with it but I wasn't positive who she belonged to and didn't feel comfortable going door to door with my youngest son in tow.

When I got to the end of the driveway, I saw a white grocery store bag. I had noticed it when I came home but thought it was trash and hadn't gone to throw it away yet. Upon closer look I discovered what I thought was dog food in it. I picked it up and there were two cans of new dog food, 1 opened, 2 dog treats and a small ball. It was then that the pieces all clicked together.

Someone put her in our yard and then put the bag at the end of our driveway. We live on the corner and in our area, if you were going to abandon a dog in a yard, well...our yard would be the easiest one to do it. 

I take the dog into the house and go wake my Mom up. When she wakes up, I tell her "Mom. I think we have a dog." so of course I have to tell her the story and she has to come and meet the dog.

My Mom has had a hard time since the death of her beloved doggies. They were very old and had to be put to sleep within a year of each other. Not to mention my dog died on Thanksgiving 2-3 years ago. So slowly we had begun to talk about getting pets again. She said it would probably be easier for her if we got the cat first since she has no cat issues. I'm the one with cat issues, I dearly miss my cat from when I was a teenager and haven't had a cat since then. I have everything I need for a cat but haven't yet made the jump.  I'm getting a little off the topic but the point is, we weren't thinking of getting a dog first or even quite yet.

Right when my Mom comes and sits on the couch, the dog jumps up on her and licks her face.  It's not long after that, that we make a joint decision to keep her. My Mom said a few weeks ago that when the time was right, we would find a pet or it would find us and man, was she right! My Mom thought we would need to fall in love with an animal before we took it into our home. Well with this dog, it was love at first sight.

She has such a sweet face, her coat is this really cool orange color (which you might not be able to tell from the pictures.  She seems friendly. So far she's mostly slept. I'm not sure how old she is but I think she's young.

I still think she belongs to one of the families I thought she did in the first place. I can't image getting rid of a dog by placing her in someone's yard either. But she's a part of the family now. Her collar is beautiful with pink roses all over it. So we're calling her Rosie.