Dweezil's Christmas Miracle

My little foundling pup, now named Dweezil, was just snuggling in my lap and reminding me that some stories have happy endings and that we sometimes cry tears of joy. Here is the re-posted story of how he came to us, just one year ago:

***

A weary stranger on the road, seeking shelter and warmth and safety. It sounds like a Christmas story to me.

He was cold. Cold and very hungry, and so thirsty. The days were long and dangerous enough with all the honking cars, but the nights seemed to last forever. He didn't know where to go, but he knew he had to get away from those mad singing coyotes and the big owls hunting in the orchard. He wasn't sure how to deal with the huge roaring monster of a train that came through every few hours, and he had crossed the track several times.

But, oh, he was so cold and lost and afraid.

***

We live on a road that runs between two heavily traveled streets. Although our place in the orchard is fairly quiet, there is a railroad track about half a mile away.We first saw the little dog when we were on our way out to breakfast and were worried that he was so near the road, but then he headed off toward a fenced yard and we figured that he had just been out for a little stroll.

Many hours later, I spotted the little guy once again. This time he was outside our fence, visiting with our dogs. I was worried about the traffic, and enlisted Beez's help. Grabbing a package of string cheese, I went out to see if I could get him to come in to safety.

It took over an hour of signalling cars and trucks to slow down and go around, and calling softly to Beez for more cheese. We learned early on that he was frightened of people, but terrified of men; so Beez stayed way back. Remembering the lost pup's lack of fear of other dogs, I got Little Pete to help. That did the trick: The little wanderer came into the yard to see Pete and to get another bite of cheese, and Beez materialized behind us and closed the gate.

Little Pete is always willing to help out

People began arriving for supper. My sister almost wept when she realized that this was the same dog she had tried to call to safety two days before. She had been haunted by the thought of him out there on his own, but he had been too frightened to come near. Now he seemed to remember her voice.

My husband, that good Beez, spent another hour out in the yard, getting the little guy to trust him enough to come into the house before nightfall's below-freezing temperatures. This is the man who earlier had put together his rightly-famous white lasagna and got it into the oven, while still managing to work patiently with the little wildling. Our dozen dinner guests quietly cheered him on from the living room until he arrived with the cold, tired pup cradled in his arms.

Once inside, with access to plenty of food, water, warmth, and comfy laps, the terrified and exhausted little pup underwent a pretty amazing change. He asked Helen to lift him up and hold him. He snuggled right down and fell asleep, safe at last. He was sleeping so hard, that first Jeff and then Jean took over the pup-holding duties, and he didn't even stir.

Around the big table, we smiled at each other and talked quietly of Christmas miracles.

Safe at last

Dweezil's Day Out

Parents with a lot of kids plan activities to give each child some special individual time; folks like us who run multi-pet households do the same. Yesterday was Little Pete's turn for a walk along the Rio Grande, and today was a special outing for Dweezil. *

First we went to PetSmart to get a collar, tag, and a harness to replace the Dreaded Red Garment that we use with all our new pups to keep them from backing out of a collar when learning to walk nicely on a leash. Here is Dweezil meeting a talkative bird, and explaining to her that he doesn't always wear this ugly red thing. 

And here is Dweezil, discussing wardrobe misfortunes with another new friend. Excuse the photos, I am just learning how to use my iPhone as a camera. 

Once we had Dweezil properly outfitted, we discovered that we didn't have the right tool in the car to put the new identification tag onto the new collar. You know, the ID tag with his name on one side and our address and cell phone number on the other side. Oh, well, we'd put it on at home [cue the ominous organ music here], right after we took little Dweez out for a nice walk in the desert [continue with the foreboding music here] using the new handsome harness and the new unfamiliar retractable leash. 

Little dog, big desert

I suppose with all this ominous music swirling around in the background (use your imagination), you are thinking that we are doing several really, really dumb things all at the same time. I know, I can hear your thoughts:

1) Omg, they are taking a little pup out on his inaugural walk with an unfamiliar retractable leash!
2) Omg, they are leaving the brand new ID tag in the car. In the car!!! What good will it do there?
3) What's wrong with these people?

You would also be cursing us even further if you knew that we were far from home (for a little pup) in totally unfamiliar territory, but not too far from a highway and a bunch of busy four lane roads.

Okay, okay, I know we were beyond dumb. And you know what happened:

The retractable leash slipped out of Beez's hand and the handle loudly clunked to the ground behind little Dweezil, who (up until that moment) was behaving perfectly well and sniffing some coyote scat by a mesquite bush.

Hearing something big smack the ground behind him just when he was thinking about coyotes, Dweezil panicked and ran, and the horrible handle thing chased him, making him run all the faster.

Beez chased Dweezil and they disappeared over the hill and toward all that traffic.

Where's the pup?

By the time I neared the big road, dreading the worst, I could see that Beez had taken the car to try to follow the panicky little pup who was dragging the thing that he thought was chasing him.

Just out of sight, a couple of parking lots over and still on our side of the big, traffic-filled road (lucky for everyone), an exhausted Dweezil sat down to think things over. A kind man grabbed the leash and left Dweezil tied to his car while dashing inside his workplace to grab his phone. Lucky for us, Dweezil was outside where Beez could see him when driving by.

All were reunited safely, and no one had to explain to the nice man when thanking him that his phone wouldn't have helped anyway because the tag with the phone number was in the bag in the car and not on the pup's collar where it should have been.

Dweezil is here with us at home now, taking a nap in the sun (wearing his new collar and ID tag), while Beez and I think really hard about how smart people (well, we used to think we were fairly smart) can do really, really dumb things and how everything can go badly wrong in the wink of an eye. And how things could have been much, much worse, except for the kindness and quick thinking of a stranger.

❤ ❤ ❤

*If you haven't met Dweezil before, he is introduced in Christmas Story and Now, About That Pup