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Tuesday morning, Spot went missing around 8 a.m. I started getting worried about him by 8:30. By 9, I was driving up and down the road looking for him. No Spot.
A couple hours later, still no Spot.
Then I had to go out. I came home around 4:30. Halfway down the road, I came across the Ornery Angel and her three little children, walking. (If you don’t know the Ornery Angel story, read here.) Supposedly, each time I pick up the Ornery Angel, my motivation is tested. When I can finally pick her up with no motivation other than seeking the goodness of mankind, she will evaporate (as her only purpose on this planet is to test me) and my place in heaven will be secured. Only because I keep thinking it will make me a better person to pick her up, it ruins the whole thing, so picking her up actually does me no good. But since I pick her up anyway, knowing it does me no good, does that then make me a better person, after all?
My logic defies even me.
And besides, to be honest, I wanted to ask her if she had piglets yet and make sure she remembered that she was going to give me one.
I stopped my car and rolled the window down. She looked at me like she wanted to let out a big sigh of irritation that it was me again. I asked her if they needed a ride. She hesitated, then said, yes. Her car was broken down, and in fact, was broken down at home so she had walked all the way (over 2 miles) to meet the bus to get her kids and they were on their way home.
All four of them piled in and I asked her about the piglets. They’d had 12! And she mentioned giving us one. Or two. Or more. They want to get rid of them as soon as they’re ready to go. I told her about Spot and asked if she’d seen him. She said she had seen him earlier, all the way out the road, headed for the hard road, which was bad news.
I’m thinking this is how Spot ended up in the McDonald’s parking lot to begin with. He’s a wanderer, a brief sojourner, a rolling stone, breaking hearts along the way. I tried to remind myself that we didn’t set out to bring another dog home, he’d only been at the farm for two days, and surely we wouldn’t miss him.
But we missed him.
That same day, Dookie-the-farm-shih-tsu went to the groomer.
Dookie, before.
A fashion don’t!
Dookie, after.
A fashion do!
He’s almost like a new dog after he comes home from the groomer. Except he’s still cranky and he’s not our new dog.
We missed Spot.
I kept looking for Spot on Wednesday. I’d called my cousin and asked him to watch for Spot since he’d been last seen headed in his direction. My cousin’s farm tends to attract strays. I was out yesterday and came home around 4. The Ornery Angel’s car was working again and it was parked in my driveway.
And she had Spot.
She’d seen him on the road, picked him up, and brought him home to us.
Hunh.
P.S. Everyone decided that Spot should be renamed Boomerang. I put a pink collar on him since it was the only one I had and I’m going to get him one of those engraved tags with our phone number.
Posted by Suzanne McMinn on May 14, 2009
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And I am so glad that Spot/Boomerang made it back home. It sounds like your persistent niceness to the Ornery Angel is breaking through.
4:26
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Glad Spot made it home ok.
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Yay for having him home!
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It sounds like your Ornery Angel might need a friend, and needs to first figure out if she can trust you or not. I bet there is a long story to her life and why she is the way she is.
I am reading your new book. I can see you and your farm in this book. So far it is pretty good. A nice break from school books.
5:55
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And it’s nice to be able to look Dookie in the eye again.
6:18
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Happy Birthday, Ross!! An “official” adult!
And it’s so nice to see Dookie’s eyes!!
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http://www.ratterrierclub.com/standard/index.html
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Thanks for the nice story, again…
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Do you two have a lot in common? Are you both single parents with three children in the wilds of WV?
And, you are a tough role model. You balance being a farmer, parent, writer, a personal life (that we live vicariously with you), you help out Georgia and the OA, and you still have time to bake birthday cakes and find your pants in the morning.
You shine.
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Glad you got Spot/Boomerang back. It’s nice the OA is comming around. How many piglets are you going to get?
8:25
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Glad Boomerang is back home. It’s almost as bad as worrying about a child out driving for the first time by themself.
Oh, and BTW, I have one of those neighbors too. My Dad always said to kill ‘em with kindness. But dang, sometimes that’s hard to do.
8:47
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So we took a county map and went down quite a few roads and up to many houses to ask if they had seen her. Many people had not. We did this for a few days. I was getting disheartened. But then many people started calling.
We had left index cards at every house with our info and the dog’s info. People had called us to tell she would not come to them but which way she ran. And run she did, and we saw her trail of running by the calls.
We got a call early Thanksgiving morning and someone saw her and they followed her and the caller told us the color of the car her hubby was in and we drove to the place and saw his car run out of the trailer park and we followed him and we then went on the high way and called and called her, we thought she was hiding in the field next tot he park, and she came and jumped into my arms, all 68 pounds of her, with a few pounds missing since she ‘d been gone. Man that was a good Thanksgiving!
I love your stories here. You make my day with your lovely animal stories.
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And – Happy Birthday, Ross – the big 18! Please don’t grow up any faster!
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Happy Birthday (belated) to Ross!!!! wow, they grow up fast – my three nephews is who I reference!
Dukie…the bald dog!!!!!! OHHHH! LOL
They skinned you! LOL
They are building (as of yesterday) this huge new apartment complex in one of the fields behind our home, to the left of our backyard….sigh This was country when we moved here in the 90′s…bare fields and so peaceful and quiet…it is now busy, crowded, rat racey and will be MORE rat racey, with the new apartment complex. I am just glad it is not DIRECTLY behind us. However the land has sold directly behind us and we don’t know what is going IN there. All this to say…a farm sure sounds nice!
1:08
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Poor Dookie! I’ts still too cold and wet here to shave a dog down.
1:09
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I am very glad to hear Boomerang made it home (I like that much better than Spot).
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But I was really hoping for a picture of the Ornery Angel.
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Hello Dookie! Nice to finally see that little face. Good, clean cut!
Maybe things will work out with the OA, you just never know.
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I’m glad that Spt/Boomer/Boomerang is home again. He will learn. He looks pretty young in that picture, such a sweet face.
Dookie, oh Dookie…aren’t you a handsome sort withthe new hairdo! I bet it feels good too.
Happy Birthday Ross! I saved the best for last. I hope your birthday was all you wanted it to be!
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is Spot/Boomerang a “complete” dog? Just thinking…if you keep him, he needs neutering, or you may end up with Coco having a very interesting litter!
The other thing is – it may also help settle him down from his wanderlust.
Dookie looks so cute all shorn! Bet he’s feeling all light and frolicky now!
8:38
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Dookie, Dookie, my man, what have they done to you?! All that rumpled fur that gave you such a macho dog look is gone. It will grow back big guy… I just hope new readers that don’t know what character and strength you possess might think you are a “phoo-phoo” dog!!! Think tough Dookie, think tough…
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