Lost Puppy

My morning got off to a very unusual start today.  I didn't get much sleep last night, so I was laying in bed feeling rather tired...all warm and snuggled down in my soft flannel sheets that I really hate having to part from in the mornings...when Mom suddenly opened my door and announced that there was a lost puppy crying in our front yard.  I was up, dressed, and out the front door in record time!

The poor little fella was cowering under the truck, wimpering and trembling.  I pulled him out, and it only took a little bit of petting and sweet talking before he was cuddling up against me.  He was so sweet.  If I moved away, he would whimper and follow and press up against me.  It turns out that he belongs to our neighbor up the road, whose dog just had eight puppies.  He must have wandered off during the night.  It was quite a long trip for such a little fella, and it makes me sad to think of how scared and lonely he must have felt all night.  We heard him crying in the early morning hours, but we didn't realize what it was (and had no idea it was coming from our own yard).

He was covered in ticks.  COVERED.  As in hundreds.  Literally.  It was so gross.  This picture gives you something of an idea, but they were also clustered in his arm pits, his ears, between his toes...  It was awful!  And with that many ticks, you know that some of them have to be carrying Lyme's Disease, which is pretty prevelent in our state.

Mom suggested soaking him in warm soapy water to try and kill the ticks.  His first bath!  He went in like a trooper.

He didn't want to stay too long, though.  He was so tired.  He actually fell asleep in the sink.  He crawled up like this (except on the side against the wall), laid his head on his paws, and fell asleep.  It was so cute, and so pitiful!  I pulled him back down in the water, and kept one hand under his tummy and one hand under his chin to keep him from drowning because he was still asleep!  I wanted him to soak a few more minutes while Stephen got an old towel to wrap him in.

I sprayed him off with the sink sprayer, and that woke him up!  He didn't like that AT ALL and kept crying.  Then I wrapped him in the towel and went back outside.  He was soon fast asleep in my arms, and I went to work picking off the ticks with a pair of tweazers and dropping them in a bucket of water.  The ticks were hanging on for dear life!  The puppy kept whimpering in his sleep while I pried them off.  I felt so bad.

Unfortunately, I had to work at the library today, so five minutes before I had to leave, I finally tore myself away, handed him off to Stephen, and ran inside to change clothes, pack up my stuff, and get going.  Stephen was very helpful and had packed my lunch and my water bottle for me while I was still taking care of the puppy.

Stephen got as many ticks off as he could before the little fella woke up and started squirming too much.  Stephen says that he got really perky after his nap, and was nibbling on his toes and being really playful.  Then he ate some more dog food and promptly flopped over and went back to sleep.  The neighbors came and got him not too long after that.  I'm going to miss him!  He was such a sweet little tyke.  :-)