Can We Keep It?

After Lucky died, Abbie presented a hypothetical situation to Leah. She wondered whether we could keep a stray dog if we happened to find one. Leah responded that we would only do that if the dog didn’t have a collar, and we could not find its owner. This turns out to be similar to the time that I told the kids they could have a rabbit if they could catch it. That was a big mistake because my next conversation was about how the cotton tail rabbit they caught would die if we kept it in a cage, and wouldn’t you know that they also managed to find a dog with no collar.

We arrived at Mother’s Wednesday evening after a very long drive in thick traffic, and we were tired and ready for a rest. About ten minutes after we got there, though, Abbie came bounding through the door, “Guess what! Guess what! I found a dog without a collar! Can we keep it?” Apparently, a stray beagle had been hanging around Mother’s for the past few weeks, and Mother didn’t want the children to encourage it too much because she didn’t want the dog to think it lived there. The kids did encourage it, though.

They fed it. They watered it. They chased it around the yard for the four days that we were there, and they managed to get me to put it in the van when we left yesterday. They named the dog Dixie, and she now lives at our house. So far, she’s been a great dog. She’s really quiet, and the kids love her. We still need to get her checked out by the vet to make sure that there are not any major issues, but I think we may have a new pet.