Saving "Baron"

This past Saturday, Hubby and I decided to take a little trip with the kids around the valley were we live. We packed up the boys and headed out. The boys and I had been on our school vacation, so we enjoyed a day out of the house, different from what we’ve been doing all week. We didn’t realize what kind of interesting twist our trip would take as we started off.

We turned from the side road we’d been traveling on and onto the main road when we saw a husky walking along the shoulder with a broken chain. He looked very much like the dogs we used to have a few years back. We used to have several huskies, a white female named Kate, a couple of black and white ones, and one who was white and red named Baron. We had to find homes for them because we didn’t have the time to give to them any more, plus Hubby changed jobs and the bulk of the responsibility was left on me. Especially later on when Kate had a litter of 8 puppies. Well, this dog we saw on the side of the road looked very much like he (or she) could have been one of Kate’s pups.

Hubby, always the good Samaritan, and lover of animals, decided to pick up the dog so it wouldn’t get bumped, and try to find out where he lives. He backed up his truck to the intersection where we had just turned out from to meet up with the dog. He jumped out and grabbed the dog’s leash, calling him Baron. The dog was friendly and really sweet. He jumped in the truck without hesitation and tried to get in the front with us, but I held his collar and kept him on the floor between the boy’s feet. My hand and sleeve of my leather jacket was beginning to get all wet from the snow and ice on him. We drove about a quarter mile down the road where the dog was coming from and Hubby went in to ask if they knew who owned the dog.

While he was in the store, “Baron” continued to sniff out his new surroundings. His fir was clumped together all over his back with crusty, icy snow. Because of the warmth of the truck, the ice was melting off and creating a muddy, wet mess all over the truck. He had a kind of wet-dog-smell, but it wasn’t a stink, rather it smelled more like he had been to the dog groomers recently, so the smell had a hint of shampoo to it.

Hubby came back into the truck laughing. I asked him if they knew where the dog lived. He told me that where we had picked him up was right across the street from where he lived. He was on his way home. Apparently “Baron” makes a habit of taking a walk every once in a while to visit those who live in his domain, and then heads back home when he’s finished. We kind of laughed the rest of the morning about it. Here we were, trying to do the right thing and help out a dog and his family, only to “kidnap” him just as he was only a few steps from his home.

Will we do things differently next time? Probably, by checking the homes around where we find him might be a good step. The funny thing is that we never even thought about the trailer across the street. In fact, we had forgotten that it was even there! At least the end result was that “Baron” ended up home, safe and sound and we had something to laugh about and a story to tell our families.