The Almost Puppy

When I got home from Jenny's baby shower on Sunday I pulled into a parking space and saw this out my front windshield.

Now if you know me at all I grew up with mini schnauzers and this little guy looks exactly like a mini schnauzer puppy. So I looked around and didn't see any owners. He was shaking like a leaf and was really dirty. I tried to call him over but he wouldn't move, so I crouched down and slowly approached him. He growled a little when I first came up to him, but I let him smell my hand and he seemed ok. After waiting about 10 minutes nobody came around to claim him I decided to take him up to the apartment. Greg and Jared came home from fishing and I showed them what I found. At this point the puppy was totally relaxed, playing and being super cute. Yes I wanted to keep him, but he was wearing a collar (no tags though). The collar was super small and too tight for his neck, so that combined with his dirty state made me think he may have been missing for a while. Sooooo, I called the police department and they said somebody had reported a missing puppy fitting the description. Turns out he was from the apartment complex across the way. I felt good knowing I was returning him to his family, but a part of me was hoping nobody was looking for him.

Normally it sounds like a happy ending for the puppy but when I returned him to the lady she told me he has only been missing for 2 hours. This made me a little upset because if he was only missing for 2 hours I doubt he should have looked the way he did (really dirty, icky collar). She asked me where his collar was and I told her I thought it was too small for him and I took it off. She stated, "oh it will pop off if it's too small" ummm, no!. . . . .she also told me that the "other" dogs got out too. I asked how many and she said they have 3 other dogs besides the puppy. In an apartment! Yeesh. I also asked how they got out, and she said she didn't know, and they "must have pushed the door open or something." I hate people that don't take care of their animals so although I did a good deed, I felt crummy thinking maybe he would have been better off with a new family.