A Wandering Dog Got A BIG Surprise!
January 6, 2008 by Admin · Leave a Comment
I admit, my house is "secluded", the dirt road leading to the gravel driveway should be enough to give that away (I hear a "you might be a redneck" joke coming on….)! I like the idea of country living though, which is why I’m there. You won’t hear me complaining about noisy neighbors!
However, my next door neighbors are dog lovers much like myself, and they happen to have an adorable beagle mix named Bandit. When I say "next door neighbors", I mean a walk up the hill behind my house and through the woods to get there. Not exactly next door, but it’s the closest I have.
Anywho….. I met Bandit about 2 weeks ago, and I had no idea where he came from. He just sort of showed up in my yard one day and decided to stare at me as I worked in my garage. Being unsure if he was friendly or not, I yelled at him and he took off running. I thought that would be the last I saw of him….
I thought wrong….. Bandit started showing up in the afternoons, I would see him in my yard staring at my house, and at night my dogs would growl at the trees. If I didn’t know any better I would have worried it was a fox or something that was bothering them, but no, it was bandit.
A few nights ago I was working in my garage, lo and behold, Bandit shows up behind me. This time he decides he wants to be friendly, so I managed to get a look at his collar. It was then that I realized where he came from. I gave his owners a call to let them know I had their dog, and they said "Oh, just tell him to go on home".
I realize how strange this might seem to some people, but growing up it was not unusual to have other family’s dogs roam around to be friendly, and Bandit was a particularly social creature, so I told him to go home, and off he went.
All was fine and well until last night. I went to take my dogs out and as I opened the door I was stunned to find… yes…. Bandit. Even more surprised were my dogs! My beagles are exceptionally well trained. I told them to go to their yard, and they did so, without hesitation! However, my German Shepard, Piper, was not so interested in listening to me!
She’s still young and so she’s working on trying to be more obedient, but the temptation of another dog was just too much! She nearly pulled my arm out of it’s socket when she decided to run! I thought poor little Bandit was going to have a heart attack when he saw Piper lunge at him! I managed to keep hold of her, wrestled her into her yard, and then proceeded to deal with Bandit.
The problem is that Bandit has decided that he’s my buddy. He thinks it’s O.K. to come visit, and he wants to play with the other dogs! Well, Bandit wouldn’t leave my side, I think my dogs were being more than a little intimidating, so I proceeded to walk towards Bandit’s house, with Bandit following closely behind.
I dropped him off with his owners, let them know I didn’t particularly mind him, I just didn’t want Piper to get any funny ideas, so I felt Bandit was safer back at home. They thanked me, I walked back home, took care of my own pups, and went to bed.
I think I’m going to have to be more careful in the future. I’m still nursing a sore shoulder thanks to Piper, and I don’t think Bandit fully understands the idea of avoiding my little doggies…… We shall see…..
