This bugs me

I got up this morning to find a car parked in front of our house by our mailbox. At first I though it was a black Saab (which a friend of mine drives), so I peered out the window to take a closer look. No, it was a car I didn't recognize, with a man that I didn't recognize sitting in the passenger seat with the door open, holding the collar of a dog I didn't recognize.

First thought: Oh great. My dogs are gonna love that when they go out to snoop around the mailbox later.

Over the next half hour, my thought progression went something like this:

I wonder what's going on. Is he having car trouble? Wow, on Christmas morning too. I wonder if I should invite him in. Mm, no. I don't know if he's got a knife or anything, and besides, hubby's still in bed. Plus, what would we do with the dog? Maybe I could offer him something: coffee? A phone? Well, he's sitting still, so it looks like he's waiting on someone. Apparently he's already called. Besides, I'd have to get dressed, and I don't really want to do that yet. So much for the spirit of the season. Yeah, I know. Jesus would invite him in and start making breakfast. And Jesus would probably make his own dogs go hungry so their visitor dog could have breakfast. Except that Jesus would be too young, so he'd ask Mary & Joseph to do it. No, I'll just leave that one alone.

I wonder if he knows I'm in here. I wonder if he's seen me? Because if I see him from 20 feet away, I'll probably be guilted into talking to him. And yet, I can't help but check to see if he's still out there. Yup, still there.

Oh good. My shepherd just barked once, apparently to alert this interloper to her presence. Wait, what's that noise?

I go back out to check the street. The car is gone, and there's an animal control truck there. I assume this guy found the dog running around and called animal control. And the dog looked healthy and well-cared-for. Obviously this is somebody's pet.

About eight years ago, I left my backyard gate open late one evening, and my dogs went roaming. I didn't realize they were gone 'til the following morning, and I was a wreck ALL. DAY. LONG. A very nice lady who lived about 2 miles away found them, fed them, and put up signs to find me, so we were separated less than 24 hours. Still, that was a very long, painful day. I can't imagine what it must feel like to lose a child.

This is an easy one to remedy: put a collar and an ID tag on your animals. Petsmart has self-service engrave-while-you-wait machines for just a few bucks. I'll let you decide how much info you want to put on the tag, but your phone number is a must. Microchip ID is fine and good, but you have to have the scanner to read it. A tag with a phone number means this guy could have called the owners directly, and the dog could already be home. Now somebody's going to spend Christmas Day heartbroken, looking for their dog. Petsmart will be open tomorrow. You can go on your lunch hour.