Pedersen, this is all your fault, isn't it?

[MaggieTheCat]

So I went for my morning walk in the park near our house this morning, and as I was getting ready to head home, I saw a dog running around without a leash.

Bother.

So I went up to it, hoping it had a collar on with a phone number that I could call. The dog came right up to me, very friendly, but...no collar.

Double bother.

So after some conjoling, it's now in our back yard. We're gonna take it to our vet tonight and hope it has a microchip. If not, then we'll post fliers up around the neighborhood (I have a hard time believing it doesn't belong to someone since it's so friendly, and it's scratching at my patio door trying to get inside right now. I really hope someone didn't dump him.) I really hope we can find its owner, because we don't want to keep it, but we don't want to dump it at a shelter, either. Thankfully, a good friend of ours works for a humane society, so if we can't find where it came from, she can help us find a forever home for it.

[Mikkel]

Picture, please?

Be careful, be very careful. How many days did it take Pedersen to go from "I don't want a cat" to "What should I name him"?

[Pedersen]

Picture, please?

Seconded. The whole thread is useless without pics.

Be careful, be very careful. How many days did it take Pedersen to go from "I don't want a cat" to "What should I name him"?

That depends: Do you count the fact that I'm still not a cat person, so my entire 39 years before meeting him? Or do you start counting from the minute I met Storm? Cause if it's the second, it was pretty much too late within about 5 seconds.

Good luck, Maggie. Letting him go might be easier for you than it was for me, but I'm doubting it

[MaggieTheCat]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maggiethekatt/5038909455/

Our one cat, Ash, who is totally mellow and wants to be friends with everyone, keeps meowing at the dog through the glass patio door.

One of our other cats, Pluto, keeps hissing at the dog through the glass patio door. At one point, Pluto's fur was sticking up so much he looked like one giant black ball of fluff!

Our last cat, Yume, wants nothing to do with any of it, and is hiding behind the microwave. Quite a feat, considering the microwave is wedged in the corner of the counter in the kitchen and has stuff all around and on top of it. I have no idea how she got back there.

[Mikkel]

Awww, he is smiling. I really hope he has just slipped the leash and will be reunited with his human soon.

What are you going to name him?

[cewfa]

Awww, what a pretty doggie.

[ArcticChicken]

Awwwwwwwwww!!

[Pedersen]

So, Maggie, does he have a name yet? I mean, besides "Hey You!" ?

[MaggieTheCat]

No, really, we're not keeping him. We took him to the vet, and unfortunately (but not surprisingly) he doesn't have a microchip. I've got his picture posted on some sites like FB and our local HOA's website hoping someone will recognize him. I'll probably go door to door with fliers in the neighborhood tomorrow. But if we can't find a home for him in the next week or so, we're gonna call animal control.

[hinakiba777]

Well I hope you find his human. Or a new human for him.

This just reminds me that when I get a dog in the future I'll have to get him microchipped. He's a handsome boy though isn't it?

Can't imagine not finding someone who wants to snuggle him

[BookstoreEscapee]

Well I hope you find his human. Or a new human for him.

This just reminds me that when I get a dog in the future I'll have to get him microchipped. He's a handsome boy though isn't it?

We always said Pablo had a chip on his shoulder.
(You could feel it if you knew where it was.)

[MaggieTheCat]

Well, the dog's name is Paco.

No, we're not keeping him. Not permanently, anyway. My friend who works with the local rescue group is gonna get him in the adoption system this weekend, since no one has claimed him yet. They'll get him vaccinated and checked out for parasites, etc, and then try to find a home for him, but they like the animals to come with names, so we had to name him.

We went on a dog walk with him last night, and he was great. Not super well trained on a leash, but he didn't get offended at all when a couple of the other dogs got in his face and started growling/barking at him. He seems to love everybody. Everybody loved him, too; he's super-cute. My rescue friend said that once we get him up to date on his health records and get him in the system, it shouldn't take long to get him adopted out because he's such a sweetheart. So we're hanging on to him for now. The rescue group doesn't have an actual building, it's just a collection of volunteers, so they rely on people to be able to foster animals until they can be adopted out. So that's what we're doing for the time being.

[Mikkel]

Great to get an update. Paco looks like a very nice and friendly dog.
How is he with the cats? And the cats, do they accept him now?

[MaggieTheCat]

How is he with the cats? And the cats, do they accept him now?

No, which is one of the reasons why we don't want to keep him permanently (also, money, while not the deciding factor, is part of that decision as well. Three cats already gets fairly expensive.) I'm sure our one cat, Ash, would be fine with him, but the other two hate dogs of all kinds. We haven't let Paco in the house at all because I think it would be pretty detrimental to the cats. Yume would hide all the time and we'd never see her, and Pluto would get very aggressive (he's already been aggressive toward our friends' dogs when they took Pluto for a weekend for us while we were out of town.) Paco himself seems okay with the cats through the window. He'd probably just want to play with them. He wanted to play with all the dogs last night, even the ones that were trying to menace him.

[MaggieTheCat]

Paco went to stay with our friends this weekend (the couple who volunteer with the rescue group.) They were able to let him in their house, and they said he is definitely potty trained already and did very well, aside from being extremely hyper and knocking everything over. I figured this would be the case and is another reason why I don't want him in our house; I make jewelry and work with a lot of extremely tiny and delicate components, and I have no doubt he'd smash into a lot of my stuff and either scatter it all over the floor or outright break it. He's a great dog, just very hyperactive. He'll get better once he's neutered, but that won't happen for at least a week yet. I think we're going to an adoption event next weekend, where he will get his shots and other meds and where people can meet him and interact with him. If we're really lucky, someone might be interested in him and they can start the adoption process right there, although they can't take him home till he's been neutered.

In the meantime, we got him a bunch of chew treats and I ordered some chew toys for him that should be here in a couple of days, so hopefully he won't be too bored (he's already destroyed some stuff in our backyard, not that I blame him for it since he's been cooped up there for a while with no toys.) Tomorrow I'm going to take him for a long walk. Our friends walked him a bit today and said he did really well on the leash.