Hi, I’m Krazy Uncle and I’m new to this site. As a way of introduction, I’m dusting off a long series I posted on another site about two years ago. That site was a large blog site with thousands of members. The entire site closed, mostly because the code was about ten years old, and it had become very buggy with all the different changes that the owners had implemented over the years.
I am publishing this series as it was published a couple years ago, mostly. There are some edits as some of the references to previous articles I wrote are not published here, and the people that were following me then are also not here.
There is about fifteen articles in the original story that I’ll be publishing here and my fuzzy buddy always gives me more to write about.
Something I should also mention is that I've never had a dog of my own to take responsibility for. This entire episode was a learning experience for both of us... but, for different reasons as it turned out.
One final note, when my buddy came to me it was a hairy - dirty - flea and tick infested mess. I couldn’t touch the dog as it would shy away, and it was too hairy for me to tell what sex it was. I’ll leave the sex of my dog a mystery for now…
The Stray Dog
This is one of the first good pictures I was able to snap of the Stray Dog
Ten days ago, my landlord/boss texted me about a Cocker Spaniel dog running free a couple miles from my house. Just for an idea of home, I live in the foothills of the Blue Mountains of Southeastern Washington state. I am surrounded by wheat fields. There is a lot of wildlife in the area which I’ll get to in a moment.
Anyway, so there is a dog up the road from me, about two miles as I gathered from my landlord’s text. The wind was kicking up and a storm was on its way. I jumped in my van and headed up the road, and sure enough there is a Cocker Spaniel, head down, marching up the road – away from civilization. I stop and try to call to the dog and it just keeps marching up the road. So, I start driving again and catch up to it and repeat the whole process, so does the dog. I carefully pull ahead and stop, get out of the car and my hat blows off in the approaching storm winds. I swing around to look for the dog again and this time the dog is about forty feet up the hill from the road, looking down at me. Concerned for my favorite hat I turn to spot it, and then turn to check on the dog again, and – dog gone – if that little bugger hasn’t disappeared. I grabbed my hat and searched for the Cocker Spaniel, but no such luck on spotting the dog.
I drove up and down the road a couple times and I couldn’t catch a glimpse of the dog. Over the next couple days I drove up and down the road, even going up over the hill to circle where the dog may have gone. That trip almost cost me the undercarriage of my van as it was quite a bit more rugged than expected and it was partially graded with a mound in the middle of the road too tall for me to climb in my low slung van. I shouldn’t have gone down that very steep hill in an old Dodge Caravan, but I was committed. About this time I just about gave up ever seeing the dog again.
I did do a search on the internet hoping to find a local lost and found site such as a Craigslist listing, with no luck, but I found a Facebook page devoted to local lost and founds. The dog I was looking for was even listed by someone spotting the stray in the same area I’d first seen it at, but no distraught owner’s looking for their lost dog.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday morning the 10th rolls around, it is a wet and rainy day. I’d just sat down at my computer to surf and for some breakfast, still groggy from sleep and I hear a really strange, really long sucking sound at my kitchen door. WTH? I open the blind on the door and look out the window and I can’t see anything, but when I open the door I see the dry concrete under the eves has wet doggy prints… hmm… the noise I heard was a dog “sniffing” under the door sill. Shortly after that I spot the Cocker Spaniel, a muddy mess.
So, for the last four days I’ve been trying to get the doggy to let me get close enough to make its acquaintance. I’ve been feeding it and the Cocker stopped running off… as far. The dog spent the last couple days in the old corral, sleeping under a cattle salt lick structure. But, every time I went out there the Cocker Spaniel would run away. I would go one way and it'd circle around the corral the other way, always keeping the old corral between us. I’d occasionally find the dog in the garage by the food and I could open the door and it would stick around for a little longer each time.
Yesterday, we had a major breakthrough. I’d bought some boneless chicken to share and I tossed out a small piece to the dog and... ah… the muddy little dog liked that… a lot. We played that game a couple times yesterday. The last time I started tossing the chicken a little closer to me each throw. I was able to get it to climb two of the stairs up my porch before anxiety became too great for the Cocker Spaniel, and I left it at that.
I do have a security system for the house and it has a cam in the garage with a view of the porch. I watched the Cocker Spaniel climb the stairs to the top where I’d left some chicken and last night doggy spent a large part of the night sleeping on the porch, a very good sign.
My biggest concern with this dog is that I do live in the country. Even though I am surrounded by wheat fields and steep hills, and the only trees are in the ravines between hills it’s still much wilder than most people would guess. To the unknowing, the country side does appear to be wide open and a bit barren, but there is a lot of wildlife running around. I have seen in my yard, or the surrounding fields a lynx, deer, a herd of over a hundred and fifty elk across the road, a moose, turkeys, owls, falcons, hawks, a bear cub and many coyotes… about two miles as the crow flies from my house I’ve even taken video of three wolves as they crossed a field I was farming, and it has been reported to me there is a pack of about ten wolves in the area that killed a beef cow and her calf. So, wildlife is a concern, but especially the coyotes. I hope to be able to get the dog to stay in the house soon… psst… don’t tell my landlord, okay? Although, to be honest I don’t know if it will work out having this dog inside and all. Besides, I’ll have to brush the fuzzy dog frequently during the rainy season if it comes in the house. The little bugger is doing its job keeping the gopher population down, but it leaves doggy with feet that are very dirty.
A very muddy, dirty and matted dog indeed... notice the dog's not taking its eyes of me...
Today the dog and I played the chicken eating game again. I’d set up a lawn chair and kept tossing the chicken closer and closer to me, and as you can see the dog is almost in reach… I stayed outside with my new friend for about an hour and we both kind of dosed for a while. Something the poor dog probably needs as it has to be so cautious at night. Wish us well and I will keep updating this story as it develops.
hmm... chicken... the best kinda way to make friends...
Thank you, the Krazy Uncle… there’s much more to come…
P.S. I may ask for help navigating this site from time to time, and if you see where I can improve the reading experience for others please let me know in the comments.