Hi everyone it’s Cindy here to tell you about some excitement we had on Thursday morning. The day started as most do with a check of the thermometer before taking the dogs out for their morning constitutional. It was 4°F. Another frigid morning that called for quick trips from the pups. We all had our breakfast and after that Charlie headed back up to the bedroom.
Front door leading to stairs to bedroom.
In order to get upstairs you have to pass through our front foyer. As you can see there are long skinny windows on either side of the door. The pups often hang out here and watch the world (or what little of it they can see) go by. In typical Charlie fashion he glanced out the window and noticed something out of place.
The view down the driveway from front door window.
Upon closer inspection he said, “Hey there is a dog in our driveway!” I jumped up and took a look and sure enough there was a large pitbull type dog sitting in the middle of our driveway quite a ways from the house. I grabbed my coat, boots and some treats and went out through the garage to see if I could lure the dog to me.
The arrow shows how far down the driveway the dog was
As you can see we have a very long driveway and the dog was about 200+ feet from the house. Unfortunately as soon as I stepped about 5 feet from the garage the dog ran toward the road so I retreated to the house.
View of house from dogs location
He didn’t go very far and just sat down again. I called our local animal control to report him in hopes that someone was already looking for him. Before I could get his full description out of my mouth the animal control officer finished the description. He also told me that “Bruno” had escaped from his house at about 6pm the previous night. That meant the poor boy had been out in near 0°F temps all night. Charlie looked at the dog with binoculars and noticed that he was wearing a collar and that it looked like his feet were hurting him because he kept lifting his paws. This pup needed to get home soon!
Bruno tracks in our front yard
It was evident that Bruno had been hanging around our house for a while by the amount of tracks he left. We first thought these were from deer but upon closer inspection realized they were from the dog. I even found his prints right at our garage doors.
Paw print in snow
Within a half hour the owner and the animal control officer were at our house. I told them that the last time I had seen the dog was in the wooded area in front of the house and let them know they were welcome to wander around in there if they wanted. The owner went out to the road and started calling the dogs name. I had gone back inside as I didn’t think there was anything more I could do and watched from the front window. In a few short minutes we could see movement in the woods and it was Bruno bounding through the snow towards his owner. After a few moments of joyful reunion the owner grabbed Bruno’s collar and lead him to his car. They sped away probably headed to the vet to have him checked out.
Charlie and I also did a little happy dance knowing that Bruno wouldn’t be suffering in the cold any longer. It was an amazing fluke that Charlie spotted the dog while glancing out that skinny window, but I’m so glad he did. One funny thing is that the dogs never barked at him, just the cars in the driveway.
Front of our house in snow
Bruno isn’t our first stray dog rescue, but I hope he will be our last. Over the years we have had a few strays wander onto our property and every time we have been able to find the owner through our local animal control and reunite them.
Snow pile next to garage
I’ll leave you with a look at the snow pile we have accumulated in our driveway from the 12″ of snow we had on Wednesday. We are supposed to get some more snow tomorrow too!
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Bird Brains & Dog Tales 