To start, this is not a story of romance. Mr. Basketmaker and I do not celebrate Valentine’s Day. But it is a sweet little story that may make you go “Awwww.” Well, at least it does for me.
I’ve been a little stressed over the last couple weeks, hence the lack of posts. Hard to be creative and do some writing while my mind is pre-occupied. With what? Let me keep it as short as possible, which will be hard because there’s so much “in-between” I want to say. But I will keep it simple.
At the end of last year, we had a stray dog who stopped to visit us often. And before we left for Texas, he started to make an appearance pretty regularly. Probably because shortly before we left he finally met the wonderful Chance and they instantly became friends. So he was on my mind a lot more — why did he have no collar? Was he starving? Who was taking care of him? The questions were endless.
When we returned, he came by more often and stayed much longer. So much so, that he wasn’t leaving except for a few hours where he wandered the neighborhood. So a few days before we were to leave for Atlanta, we decided to start feeding him and placed one of Chance’s many beds on our small covered porch outside of Eric’s workshop, along with an old wool blanket.
Here he is, loving his new bed. And seemed to be so grateful. But the temperatures were beginning to fall below freezing at night so we decided to let him sleep in the workshop.
And then he was spending a majority of the day with Eric inside the shop, curiously watching the making of basketry materials. We started to call him “buddy” for the time being.
Then the day came where we needed to leave for Atlanta. We couldn’t take him to the vet because we didn’t own him. And we were not comfortable bringing him to the shelter where he would be cooped up in a cage. It would be so traumatic since we’re sure he has spent most of his young life roaming the woods and neighborhood.
So Mr. Basketmaker built a quick, rather haphazard, yet completely functional, shelter on our little front porch. He insulated it and this stray dog now had a new home and would be protected from the weather. Eric also created a little ‘alcove’ of sorts that contained enough food to last a week.
This temporary situation was very hard for me because I couldn’t imagine leaving a dog all alone for 5 days. And Chance was going to be safe as usual at the kennel. We couldn’t bring “buddy” too because he had no shots, etc. And we couldn’t get shots until we legally owned him. So we made the painful decision that since he has most likely lived outdoors for the last six months from the first time we saw him over the summer, that he would be able to survive. In addition, if he was still here when we got back, then we knew he definitely had no home and we were adopting him.
And that’s precisely what happened. We pulled in our driveway after being in Atlanta for 5 days and there “buddy” was, sitting on our sidewalk, waiting for us. And he had about one more night of food left. We quickly let him back inside the workshop, set up his own space and Eric gave him a good bath with special medicated shampoo from the vet. He had lots of scratches and scars over his body — majority probably from him passing through the many barbed wire fences down here!
We then took him to the shelter and were able to “foster” him right here at home. So I was thrilled he would not be in a cage. That would be too traumatic. And we learned that he was about a year old and a Boxer / Beagle mix with some Lab as well. After a brief waiting period, he would officially become ours by Tennessee law.
But in the meantime, he sort of “put the word out” that we were good people because one morning we woke up with 3 puppies outside our door! I cannot help but think he had something to do with this!
And if this dog was not a male, we would be led to believe that he was the puppy’s mother! He was so nurturing and kept an eye on all of them. But we couldn’t take care of three puppies as well. So we called the shelter knowing that puppies would most likely have the best chance to be adopted. And we were able to enjoy them for a couple days before they were picked up.
This was my favorite who I named Lucy. Here she is being healthy, eating a carrot —start them young and they will always love carrots as a dog snack. She also enjoyed basking in the sun. She was a very sweet puppy. Followed me all around when I was outside. The other two were always wandering off, getting into trouble, but not her. It was difficult seeing her in the back of the shelter’s truck, driving away.
But my spirit was quickly lifted because today, Valentine’s Day, was the official ‘legal’ confirmation that “buddy” was now our dog. We introduced him into our home and Mr. Basketmaker named him Jaxson McBrown. Chance invited him with open arms (literally) as well!
I even caught them telling secrets and mushing on each other! Happy Valentine’s Day!!!
Note: This was hard to write and share. There was no way I wanted to broadcast that we would intentionally leave a dog alone to fend for himself. But I felt it was important to mention the distress of our decision and the affects of not spaying or neutering your animals! Being irresponsible in this way not only produces millions of unwanted dogs and cats in this country it also causes heartache to us humans who really care about animals. And the decisions we sometimes have to make for what’s best for us and for the animal.
In our case, we had to do what we felt was best for the happiness of this dog based on the short time we knew him. Dropping him off at a shelter and not being able to visit felt like it would cause great harm and trauma to him. So we decided to keep “his life outside” exactly the same until we came back. And it turns out it was the best decision. He is a very sweet dog and extremely happy now. Nonetheless, having to see three precious puppies be carted off to the shelter is another story. So please, encourage people to spay or neuter their pets, please!
