Sunday 11 January 2009

2009 - Where did that come from?

Here's to 2009! We're looking forward to it being an amazing year for this household. One full of growth, opportunities and inspiration. This is the year for our luck to turn itself around. Fingers Crossed.

The new year started off with a good deed or two. We picked up one frightened, hungry and very matted little Maltese/Shitsu. As we stopped the car, her eyes lit up and she immediately bounded over to the car and straight into the passenger side, so grateful to see someone, anyone.

So we took her home, her and her tribe of fleas. I haven't seen a dog this bad for a while which was such a shame given her bubbly personality. Not only did she have a bad case of fleas, but the matters on her legs, her ears and practically everywhere else were old, well knotted and very large and smelly. She had a mat on each leg that went completely around her leg.

Well, this little girl sat for us as we trimmed and found parts of her body I'm sure she'd only dreamed of scratching. In the end she required a full clipping and a soothing bath, flea treatment, her nails trimmed and a blow dry. This took until 2am, well after the fireworks brightened the 2009 skies. Her gratitude showed with relief and joyful play, even if it wasn't the best haircut she'd ever received.

Time for her to go outside and us to go to bed for the night. Well you wouldn't believe it... there was another Maltese dog in our backyard, hiding from the nights fireworks and parties. This one was not as friendly and didn't come to a call... so we sat and we waited... and we sat. Eventually he stopped growling at us and went and sat near the back door as if it was his own. He looked fairly loved and well groomed, definitely an inside dweller, so I opened the back door and left the light on, then sat back and waited. Didn't take him long to wander on inside.

No need to fuss over this one, but now that he was caught and safe, it was time for him to go outside too into the holding pen... problem was he didn't want to go out and tried to bite my husbands hand... ungrateful mutt. Happy to sit in the bathroom, happy to be patted, but not going back outside. No way, there were scary things outside!

Well he ended up outside eventually, against his will and we finally crawled into bed by 3am. The next day came around too quick, but a 'Dog Found' sign on the front fence had the owner of the little grumpy male dog knocking on our door within half an hour of it going up. This good deed was rewarded with $50, not a bad return for a warm piece of carpet, water and food for a night. Certainly a cheaper outlay for the owner than if he'd reclaimed him from the pound (the dog catcher). Their fines are getting up there, especially if the animals are not micro chipped or registered.

The happy little girl was collected later in the day by the pound and will hopefully find a new loving home, she deserves that.