Captain January

That was the name of a character in one of the old Shirley Temple movies............ can't remember the name of the movie, and I don't know the story behind it, but that was the man's name--- Captain January.

It is also the name that I gave to the little dog brown who is sleeping right now in our kitchen, tucked into Gracie's old puppy crate.  My husband heard a dog howling outside at 8:30 tonight.  I heard the dog also, but thought it was one of the neighbor's.  My husband said the dog sounded too close to be a neighbor's dog, so he went outside to look.  Five minutes later, he came to the back door and told me to put the cats into the TV room. My first thought was that he found a stray cat out there, and I was determined NOT to take in another cat.

When I got the cats tucked away out of sight in the TV room, I went back to the door and there's my husband with a little brown dog wrapped up in his arms.  Poor little thing was shaking like a leaf, and of course it was cold out there again tonight.  The dog looks like a dachshund, with slightly longer legs. And the collar that's on this dog is way too wide for such a small dog..... honestly, pet owners need to be more considerate of what they put around the necks of their dogs and cats.

My husband got his camera and took photos of this little brown dog and off he went to the neighbors, asking if anyone had lost their pet.  The dog didn't look familiar, but you never know.... maybe someone got a new dog for Christmas.   I got some cat food into a dish for this poor starving dog, and then I started calling neighbors up and down the road. No one had seen such a dog around, no one had recent holiday company that may have lost their dog, and of course everyone wished us luck with our 'new dog.'

By the time my husband got back from the neighbors' houses, and by the time he set up Gracie's old puppy crate in the kitchen, our 'house guest' was asleep in my arms, still shivering, and I had silently christened him 'Captain January.'

Into the puppy crate went one of the soft cat blankets... on top of that I put an old fleece vest that I wear around the house.... on top of that went the puppy, and on top of the puppy went a soft fleece sweater of mine.  Within minutes, Captain January had settled himself into a nap.  I was so tempted to cut off that wide collar that he was wearing, but Gracie's leash fit into the clasp on the collar, which would let me walk the puppy in the grass.  (Which I've done four times already in the last few hours.... the last time being successful.)

As I type, it's nearly 2:30 in the morning.  I've been up and down the stairs at least five times, each time in answer to the puppy's cries.... he seems to like the crate, but he likes my lap much better, and the last time I went downstairs, I wrapped up the puppy in that old sweater, then put him underneath my fleece wrap that I wear around the house when these ridiculous cold-snaps hit us to remind us that the rest of the country is going through Winter, so we may as well get some of that also. 

My husband and I were recently talking about another dog...... he was looking at Border Collie rescue sites on the computer..... and of course, there's always a puppy that looks like our Gracie.  My husband would gladly take a Border Collie, and I would gladly take a smaller dog. Preferably one with long silky hair that you can tie up in a cute little bow at the top of its head.  I'm not fond of dachshunds, and Gracie hated every dachshund that she met on the Greenbelt in our old neighborhood. And now there's one sleeping in her crate. Poor Gracie would be crushed.

In a moment of weakness, I asked my husband if there was a chance that we would keep this little dog.  He really doesn't want to... and I understand that.  If we were to get another dog, it would be a Border Collie, unless I could talk him into a smaller, less energetic dog, which I doubt.  The decision is not to keep Captain January...... we've agreed to take him to the shelter in the morning. 

Actually, my husband will be the one driving this dog to the shelter..... I'm the one who was just downstairs in the living room with that little brown dog wrapped up in my sweaters and sleeping against my chest.  Like all small dogs, Captain January likes to hear a heart beating while he sleeps.

Speaking of hearts, it's heart-breaking to me that people either lose or abandon their pets.  Dogs are pack animals, they're like children, and they need their families. No matter how well your dog is trained, its emotional age never progresses further than that of a two-year-old child.  Some of the neighbors told us that this little dog was probably just dropped off.... others said it could have wandered away.  We're so far from town, so far from the main road, and I doubt very much this little dog would have ended up on our porch if he hadn't been driven down this road and booted out of the car.

It makes me very sad to know that puppies and kittens end up in the hands of people who don't deserve them.  And I have to say that since we've moved to Texas, there are unwritten laws here out in the country as to what pet-owners can and cannot do with and to the animals in their care.  Go far enough out into the country and there are no 'laws,' and people get away with the damnest things that tear your heart into pieces. (What happens on someone's property, stays on someone's property.)

We cannot keep this little dog. If we were looking for a dog, a dachshund wouldn't be our breed of choice. And I'm long since over the time when I believed that if a cat or dog ends up on our porch, then it was meant to be here. My husband will take this little brown dog to the shelter in the morning, but I will send him along with that red fleece vest that the puppy is sleeping on, and it wouldn't hurt to tell the people at the shelter that his name is Captain January.