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Do we pick our pets or do they pick us?
July 19th, 2006-It was dark out. Pat had no idea what the black little blob was on our lawn. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a dog. According to his tags, the dog's name was Zeus. Pat called the animal hospital's number on the tag and found out that Zeus was from Spokane. The animal hospital said they would call the owners for us. Spokane! That's a long way from Tacoma! How in the world did he get all the way to our house! He was terribly skinny; we could see his ribs, spine, and hip bones, but at the same time, he was very muscular; had he walked all the way to Tacoma? He had a weird hump in his spine; was he hit by a car? He was very hand shy and his tail was tucked between his legs, a sure sign that someone had beat him. He had old scars that looked like puncture wounds; was he a bait dog? And his breath was horrible, the worst dog breath ever; from eating garbage while on the road? The next morning, around 6:00 a.m., I got a call from his owner-in Maine! He told me he and his girlfriend had split up and she got Zeus. He also told me she had moved to Pennsylvania and he would try to locate her. I told him we were going camping later that day and we had to do something with Zeus. He begged me not to take Zeus to the pound. By 9:00 a.m., she called me. She explained that when the two of them split up, she gave Zeus to a friend of a friend, who then moved to Seattle with Zeus. When I told her about Zeus' condition, she was in tears. She truly believed she had left Zeus in good hands. She also begged me not to take Zeus to the pound. She was going to try to locate Zeus' new owner and would get back to me. The countdown began. We were leaving at 4:00 p.m. Both of Zeus' previous owners called me all day long. It was obvious that they really cared about the dog they had to give up. She decided that she wanted her dog back, but needed time to get him a ticket on a plane home. We agreed to keep Zeus with us until she could come up with the money. So Zeus had to go camping with us. Poor dog! Thrown in a truck with another dog twice his size, hauled out to the woods, forced to sleep in a tent with people he didn't know, and, we kept him on a chain all weekend so he wouldn't run away and get lost in the woods. Back home Monday morning, his owner called again. She wanted to know how he did camping, and did he escape. She also let me know that it might be a few weeks before she had enough money to get him home. Would we be willing to keep him for that long? She would send money for food. Of course we would keep him! She called often to check up on Zeus and to let me know how she was doing with getting him a ticket home. During our conversations, I learned a lot about Zeus and how they had raised him. He was spoiled rotten by them. It was clear to me that they were not the ones who beat him. I spent a lot of time retraining Zeus to live in our house by our rules. While it was okay for him to steal food off the counters with his previous owners, it was not okay with me. He had a lot of bad habits and I worked hard to correct them. With Zeus, unlike Neo, my corrections for bad behaviour had to be gentler. Neo wanted to be alpha and needed strong discipline. Zeus had been beaten and it didn't take much to make him tuck his tail and quiver. Zeus' owner called with bad news; she wasn't able to take Zeus back. I did not want another dog; but I had already spent so much time training him that we decided to keep him. Zeus' owner was elated and sent more money to help with his neutering (a must in our house). She asked for pictures of him and I sent her video instead. We kept in touch for about a year. She must have felt confident that her dog was in good hands and let go. Zeus has turned into quite the character. He is extremely energetic and always on the go. He and Neo get along great, and he is a joy to have around. He still has dog-aggression issues, but he is getting better. I'm glad he chose our yard to collapse in!
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