The Dog Who Went Home With Santa Claus

We went to PetsMart Saturday to buy the puddytats some food and met a young woman at the front door holding a dog by the leash. She said she and her sister were coming off the interstate to find something to eat, when they saw a dog roaming around on the exit ramp. The dog, similar to the one in the picture, appeared to be well fed but had horrible scars and missing areas of fur from previous injury. Clearly she had been abused. Even so you could tell she was as sweet as could be. The girl was asking everybody if they knew the dog, could take the dog, could find a foster home for it, etc, since she was heading to another state and had to get back on the road.

There we were, two non-dog people with eight cats in the house who love animals so much.... we couldn't just walk away. After trying unsuccessfully to reach multiple rescue people/dog people by phone I called Shirin to see if she had any advice. Her suggestion was logical but sounded like a 'last resort plan' so we kept trying to help the girl by asking every person that walked by if they could take the dog or knew anyone who could take her. It was cold and windy and I don't know how long that girl had been standing there but we were determined to help her. My first reaction in situations like this, of course, is to offer to take the animal home (that's why we have eight cats.) I want to give it comfort and sustanance and love on it, but we don't have the appropriate accommodations for a dog. So Saeed approached EVERY person who walked by, even the little old lady with her granddaughter who could barely walk with her cane. (I whispered to him, "Find someone younger than that!")

Finally Santa Claus showed up, literally. An older man, wearing a Santa Claus cap, and his wife walked towards the door with their own dog, Buddy, a young white Lab-mix (?) that they had taken in from a woman who was sick with leukemia. They had come to the store for two things: 1) to let Buddy pick out his Christmas stocking and 2) to try to find him another dog to play with, a friend to keep him company. Saeed and I almost cried with relief. The two dogs sniffed each other and were wary but interested, the girl saw her opportunity to leave and took off, and Saeed asked the couple if we could buy them the first bag of dog food. They agreed and took the sweet scarred black dog to their car.

Buddy still got to go in to pick out his stocking. I do believe in Santa Claus.