the OTHER DOG

Today's thought is about my dog Tod.

Back in 2006,  Dustin and I figuratively found Tod at our front door.  We had just come home from work and Tod was running aimlessly around our neighborhood, staying unusually close to our house.  He seemed to be okay, so we didn't think much of it.  Later that night, however, he  was still close by, and he didn't seem to want to go home.  Because of his dark fur, Dustin worried if he stayed out all night he would eventually get hit by a car.  So, we brought him into our house for the night and planned to find his owners the next day.

Amazingly, Tod (we called him just "the dog" at the time) hit it off with our own dog Sammie.  The two acted like they were separated at birth and got along very, very well.

That night, we put Tod and Sammie in our kitchen and closed the doorway off with a baby gate.  No sooner had Dustin and I gotten into bed, we heard a noise coming from the kitchen.  It was Tod.  He had jumped the gate and came into our bedroom.  And jumped on our bed.  Apparently, he wanted to sleep with us.  It was so hilarious and we were pretty stunned he had the ability to jump the gate like that.

So, Sammie and Tod slept in our bed that night.  Just the ONE time.


(And every other night since then).

The next day, after work, Dustin drove Tod to the humane society to see if they could tell him if he had a microchip or give us any sort of help with how to find the owners.  Apparently, you're not suppose to do that, at least that was the impression the lady with the humane society gave Dustin when she slammed the door in his face when he tried to enter the building.

Okay, on to plan B.

Next, we put together fliers and hung them all around our neighborhood and at the local businesses.  We also took Tod to the vet to see if they could find a chip in him.  But, unfortunately, he didn't have a chip and no one ever called us to claim their dog.  It was really frustrating, especially since we were planning to move out of state in just weeks.

Eventually, we decided to keep him.  We worried about his other owners and wondered if Tod really even wanted to be with us.  But, we wanted to do what was best for him, and in our mind this was it.

We figured we needed to give him a name.  After all, calling him "the other dog" wasn't the best name.  We thought and thought about names, but nothing felt right.  Then, one day, Dustin said, "How about we name him Tod? You know, as in The Other Dog.  T.O.D."

It was the perfect name!

One day, not long after the decision was made to keep him, he got out of our house.  I was home alone and as soon as he got loose I started to chase after him.  He was so fast that I lost sight of him almost immediately.  I was panicking and did everything I could to find him, but he just seemed to vanish.

Shortly thereafter, Dustin came home and I told him what had happened.  He started to roam the neighborhood too, but I was losing hope that we would find him.

Then, to my surprise, Dustin found him.  He was on the soccer field at a school near our house.  Dustin saw him from a distance and simply called his name and Tod literally ran right to him and jumped up into his arms.

After that, I didn't worry about Tod being with us against his will.  He was meant to be our dog.

Thoughts?