Which this little guy….

..does plenty of.

I have employed various strategies to reduce his barking, such as yelling, “Stop barking!” or “Hey, stop barking!” or “Enough barking!” Surprisingly, none of these strategies has worked. Once, in frustration, I smacked him on the nose. He smacked me back (Not kidding). He climbed up on me and smacked me on the chest with his paw.

Today was the first warm day we’ve had this year, and with the nice weather comes increased activity in the neighborhood – lawnmowers, motorcycles, kids on bikes…each of which our intrepid watch dog alerted me to, without fail.

When I was home for lunch, his barking was particularly frantic and incessant – and without a UPS truck in site. I looked out the window and saw a small dog wandering around unattended. Maybe a Shih Tzu, I’m not sure.

I watched for a minute to see if an owner was nearby, and when I saw no one, I grabbed Spenser’s leash (Cue “OMG we’re going for a walk barking and spinning), a treat and my phone and set off after the little dog.

He was about four or five houses away, sniffing around some shrubbery, and when I had closed the gap a bit, I began calling him , “Hey Buddy! Hey little dog!” He bounded right up to me, tail wagging, and lay down for me to pet him. I put a treat on the ground, clipped Spenser’s leash to his collar and looked at his tag. Both a phone number and address were listed. He had traveled just a couple of blocks.

I stood, punched the number into the phone and turned to walk back to my house. What did I see about 50 feet away? Another little dog. Same breed, a little smaller, different markings. They had to be a pair. I wondered if my luck would hold out and that he would also respond to “Hey little dog.” He brightened at spotting his missing companion and loped right over. I checked his tag – yep, same address. I just ran the same leash through his collar and we walked back to my house with the two stumbling over each other. Sharing a leash was less than ideal, but hey.

I left a message with my address, saying that I would bring the dogs to the address on their tags if I could get them into my car.  I opened the door to my back seat. The dogs looked in the car, looked at me, but seemed at a loss. I picked them up and put them the car with their cooperation and ran into my house to grab my keys. Spenser disapproved of my decision to leave them in car. He had made tea and set out some biscuits.

They settled in nicely while I was gone and seemed to be enjoying their adventure. They were well-cared for, recently groomed and at a healthy weight — clearly beloved pets.

As I drove the two blocks to return them to their home, I spotted an elderly gentleman driving very slowly with his windows down. I pulled up alongside and asked if he was looking for dogs and when he said yes, I told him they were in the car and that I would take them to the house.

He was overjoyed to get his companions back. He lived alone and said they were all he had. They had slipped out the door on him and were just too quick.

So Spenser is a hero. He likes to say that he’s the rescue dog who rescues dogs. #dogception