Sunday afternoon, our security camera notified us of a person detected out front. We were both in the house, so we knew it wasn't one of us.
My husband went and looked and a large, probably 100 pounds of black dog was looking in the window at us. We opened the door, at which point "Blackie" (not his real name) wanted to come in, but we discouraged that. We went slowly outside and the poor guy was quivering in fear, with his tail tucked. He gave low growls, not threatening, but just letting us know that he didn't know us.
It was mutual. We didn't recognize him either.
I walk a lot and I know most of the neighborhood dogs, and he didn't look familiar. So I called one of my neighbors, who has large dogs and asked if they were missing one. They were not, Neither was any other neighbor that I know has dogs.
But the neighbors that have the large dogs came over to see if they recognized him, because they walk in a slightly different part of the neighborhood than I do. They suggested it might belong to one neighbor, but , no, he wasn't missing his dog either.
I had an old dusty dog bed from past dogs that I put out for this dog, and he settled right into. He still wanted to come into the house, but we were still not cooperating.
The neighbor who had come by, took a photo of the dog and posted it on social media. Within about an hour and a half or so, somebody contacted her and said it was his dog. They met him at the main road and brought him to our house.
When he heard a familiar truck drive into our driveway, Blackie perked up, and when his owner called his name, he ran toward him, and they hugged and tussled a bit, as the dog gratefully swamped his owner's face with happy licks. They were very happy to be re-united. The owner said he had been worried sick all afternoon and was kicking himself for not putting the dog's collar on.
But fortunately, this large black dog found a house that worried about him and knew he must be lost, because he was obviously well fed and in great shape, just scared silly. Right before he went home, Blackie let me pet him. I think it was his way of thanking me. Turns out he has lived in his current home for less than a year, so it was easy for him to get lost. I hope he stays close to home, but if he comes to our house again, at least we now know where he lives.
