Our Weekend Visitor

This weekend we had a visitor. His name was White, though we didn't know that at the time. White, come to find out, lives in a small, rural town and is a pure bred Border Collie.

When I met White, he was on the Interstate merge lane and was sniffing at something on the road. I pulled over and got out of the car. I looked around for any person that might be his owner and saw no one. I couldn't see a house nearby. I had seen him and another dog a couple of days before, so I figured he'd been dumped off. I called to him and he came over to me and immediately went onto his back in the submissive position. I petted him and tried to get him to follow me into the car. He was afraid and ran away. I called to him again and he came; this time I hefted him into the car. I thought about calling animal control, but decided to take him home over the weekend and post signs come Monday.

On the drive home he put his head on my lap and I stroked his fur. About five miles down the road he decided to sit on my lap. Now this was not a small dog, but he rode the rest of the way home on my lap. I realized that there was no way I was going to turn this dog in to the animal shelter. Rarely are dogs this lovey. What an adorable pooch!

When we got home the kids were so excited to pet him and see him. Now dogs at my house are an everyday occurrance, not a novelty item, but the kids love to get to know new animals and people, so this was a treat for them. I tied him outside on a tie out chain I have for our dogs, gave him a doghouse, water, and food. I wanted to know more about this dog: whether it was a him or her and find out how old it is. I checked and found that he was an unneutered male and checked his teeth and found that he was young, my guess was about 1 year.

During the night he slipped off of his collar and went into the doghouse to sleep. When my brother went out for a cigarette in the wee hours of the morning, White came out of the doghouse and wanted to sit with Bill and keep him company and also be petted. When Bill came inside the dog came too. The dog stayed inside most of the day on Sunday. He was calm and obedient, spending most of his time napping on the floor between the coffee table and sofa. He really impressed me because he never wet inside. I was wishing, as my dogs were bouncing off the walls and constantly underfoot, that they would be influenced by the goodness of this new dog.

When I brought the dog home I knew Steve was a little concerned at what would happen if we didn't find the owner, but Sunday afternoon even he was talking about keeping the dog. That was saying a lot for the stray pup!

When Steve & I took my mom home after Easter dinner, we decided to take the dog with us and see if we could figure out where he belonged. We got off on the same freeway exit we were at before and set off to find the closest farm to the freeway. As we drove by one farm with him in the car we heard people shouting joyously (they had seen him in the car with us). As we looked closer we saw a couple of other Border Collies running in the yard, so we knew that this was the place.

We met his people who told us his name and confirmed that he was about 1 year old (I am getting good!). They had been so worried about him and thought he'd been hit. The younger sister hugged me and the older sister asked how they could repay us; she offered a new puppy after they bred White. I took the offer. I don't know if our Madam (also a black and white border collie) will still be alive when the puppies are ready, or if we'll be in a great position to get one, but after having spent time with White, I've found that he and Madam are my favorite dog breed and I couldn't pass up the offer.

It is rare to find such a good natured, obedient, wonderful dog; I hope his puppies will be just like him.