Amazing Coincidences

Dash came home from the vet this morning, and Dottie stayed in the yard last night. We're really hoping they decide to stay for good rather than finding ways to escape from the yard, and we're happy and relieved that they both seem to be doing well. They'll accept treats from our hands, and while Dash is still stand-offish, he and Dot both seem to want to approach us and, maybe someday, play or be petted. At the moment, Roxie, Dash, Dot, Pan and Iorek are all outside playing together - very sweet. Zero, Sally and Gator are in the house with me, being hyper-alert to all sounds from the outside. This is stressful for Z, S & G - but they're handling it well.

But the coolest thing happened when we went to pick up Dash this morning. We were talking with Rose, who turns out to be the president of Animals' Crusaders, as well as a vet tech for Santa Cruz Vet Clinic, as we were trying to get Dash to go into his crate for his ride home. I mentioned that Dash and Dot's dad, Haku, was still hanging around our place, and did my usual 'Haku is the most amazing dog' speech. Rose then related a story about a dog who she's in love with, and has been trying to catch for years, but who has defeated all her efforts to trap him. 'In 20 years of trapping dogs, he's the only one I haven't been able to get', she said. I said that we were hesitant to try to catch Haku because of his size, and the fact that he trusts us and is doing so well on his own, and then I said something like 'Dash has his pappa's paws'. Rose looked at Dash's feet, and asked 'are you talking about a big lanky red dog, with one ear up and one ear floppy?' - it turns out that her uncatchable dream dog is, in fact, Haku - and she lives down the road and around the corner from us. Both of us have apparently been telling him for years that he could come in at any time, and he'd have a great home - and he's spurned us both.

Rose has known Haku for longer than we have (she calls him 'Old Pup'), and she actually knew a lady who was feeding him when he was a puppy. So we now know his age (about 7 years) and his provinence...he was abandoned when he was little by some people in a trailer park nearby who moved away and left him behind. She showed me a new trap she'd bought - it's HUGE - just to see if she could catch him and get him neutered and vaccinated. She again volunteered to come to our house to give the pups (D&D as well as P&I), and Roxie, their anti-mange shots in two weeks - and after thanking her for that, I said she could bring the trap if she wanted and we could try to catch him together. She'd bring him in for his neuter and shots, and release him back to where he is - hopefully to stay at our house or hers of his own volition for another 7 years.

Amazing. She's also volunteered to let us post pictures & bios of our adoptable dogs on the Animals' Crusaders website, which is connected to the proper petfinder.com search engine and allows the posting of photos. Then she said 'Animals' Crusaders is going to pick up part of your bill', and we ended up paying only 1/2 of what we really owed. So, I will be contributing regularly to AC for the foreseeable future. And we now have a Haku/Old Pup fan club.