One day at work, somewhere around 1999 I had left the yard in my work truck and was headed for a drive through coffee stop to get my strong cup for the morning. The pickup truck I was driving was an old Dodge with a gazillion miles on it, and if I floored it black smoke would come out of the exhaust pipe. It had two 4 x 4 posts for a push bumper on the front, as it was an old shop truck that they had put out to pasture (we know this one, don't we?!). I think this truck got about 4 mpg, if I remember correctly, it was an extremely heavy pickup with heavy toolboxes and a heavy headache rack on the back (lumber rack), and a generator.
So as I was driving down the street, a 4 lane 35 mph section, I saw an older lady in a wheel chair, with a young tall thin black guy by her, and two dogs. One was a Dachshund, cinnamon red, and a small black and white fluffy furball.
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The black and white furball looked very similar to this one.
All of a sudden, the black and white furball took off going the same direction they were facing, and the Dachshund took off in the other direction; at that moment I realized that neither dog was on a leash.
I saw the young man take off chasing the black and white furball, and I stopped . She said they were not her dogs, so I opted to follow the Dachshund to get it off the street because the young man took off after the other dog, as he would likely get ran over if he continued on this street. It is a very highly traveled street, and no one drives the speed limit on here.
I quickly flipped a u-turn and followed this dog and had a difficult time catching up to him, as that little sucker was a runner and extremely quick! He ran down the street a couple hundred yards and turned to the right down a side street. I continued to follow him to a house about 300 yards down the street, and just as I started to catch up he ducked underneath a gate into a yard. So I pulled up in front of the house, and decided to contact this person to see if it was their dog and that he had gotten out and gone quite a ways away.
I knocked on the door, and a lady answered. I asked her if she had a dachshund, and she said yes, and then I told her where he had been and asked her if she knew he had gotten out. She was extremely grateful, and was not surprised that he did that. She invited me in, and we walked out to the back yard, and she had a menagerie of animals back there! She had a couple of everything! Couple of geese, ducks, rabbits, chipmunks and I don't even remember all of them! And she also had about 4 dogs back there, all small, and all these animals all got along extremely well!
So she thanked me for chasing him back there, and explained how she got him: her husband is an over-the -road interstate truck driver, and they had been in Washington State. Apparently, this dog had been kicked in the face, and been left out in the snow for some time. Her husband rescued this pup, and brought him back down here and he was living with all these other animals, which I thought was an awesome story, and glad that they rescued this dog from those circumstances.
So she thanked me, and we bid bye bye, and I started to walk back to my truck, when I heard her all of a sudden ask if I knew anyone who wanted a dog. Well, I was thinking, what dog, and I asked her, and she said that Dachshund. I knew that my wife had a Dachshund when she was growing up, and I thought about it, and answered her and said, "sure, I'll take the dog." She looked at me as she was handing him to me, and said his name was "Coffee". How appropriate… I love coffee. And he was the right color!
So I drove back to the yard (it was still way early, around 10:30 or 11) and went straight to the office. I was going to take the rest of the day off, and as I was walking back to my boss's office to clear it with him, he was standing in his doorway, and he asked me if I had a dog! What would I be doing with a dog, Ron???
Soooo, after clearing it with him, (I never directly answered him) I got in the work truck and took Coffee out to my pickup and put him in it. And wow, yes, he's a barker, that's how Ron knew I had a dog with me. So I went and parked my work truck, checked out and drove home with a dog for my wife.
When I got to the house, I went into the house and I think she was either in the kitchen or on the couch, but I said to her that I had a present for her, and I told her to get the biggest hot dog bun we had, and come out to the truck.
I said "Happy Mother's Day" to her (Sunday was Mother's Day) and handed her Coffee! She was in love!!!
As an update to this story, he passed on New Years Eve day, December 31, 2015, and I have not gotten another animal.
This has been written on Steem and Hive, and shared with Blurt, because I believe that good content should be shared to multiple platforms! enjoy!
All images are mine unless indicated otherwise.
What a joy , furr Baal’s are the best addition to our lives