Save the Dogs

This post is taken from my personal blog, Loving Confusion. I wrote it in 2008 but it still makes me smile.

I woke up yesterday thinking nothing out of the norm had been happening lately and I needed something good for my blog......I need to be more careful what I throw out to universe!!

Yesterday began innocently enough. I picked up my mom and we were heading to get some gas in my car. We turned the corner of a relatively busy intersection in her neighborhood only to find an older gentleman face down in the middle of the street with a puppy on a retractable leash. Of course, despite being almost 9 months pregnant, I put on my rescue cape, pulled over and left my poor mom and kids in the car. When I approached him, he was struggling to get himself onto his feet. Clearly he needed help but out of respect I asked him if he needed a hand. He told me the dog's leash kept wrapping around his legs and making him fall. The smell from his breath told me it was not the dog's leash that made him fall but the whisky he had been drinking the last several years. The stale smell of liquor gripped my lungs, made me dizzy and made the baby leap inside me. Thank goodness morning sickness is gone this late in the game because he would have been covered with my vomit!!

Anyway, I had a puppy to rescue so I had to put that all aside. I took the leash and offered my hand to help pull him up. He was a large gentleman and terribly tipsy to say the least. In hindsight, thank goodness he got himself up because if he fell on me, the puppy would not have been the only one with issues. (I am doing my best to not think about the dead weight of a 250 plus man falling on a pregnant woman)! ANYWAY, he got himself up and I told him to walk to the sidewalk and I would hand back the leash. He was compliant, walked over and right when I handed him the puppy back, good ole 'Jim Beam' fell on his drunk ass again only this time, landing on a yelping puppy. I took the leash back and a guy in a big white van pulled up and asked me if I needed help. I told him that would be really nice because if my husband happened to drive by, we would be in divorce court by 5pm. (Later the guy that pulled over admitted to me that he stopped and offered to help because he thought I hit the man with my car)!!

Anyway, the guy and I struggled to keep 'Jim Beam' upright while we walked him home. He fell again and then told us that someone gave him the dog and that he didn't want it. I told him I would give him my number and when he sobered up, I would take the dog. He kept asking me if I wanted the dog as he unclasped the leash. I told him to keep the leash on the dog.

By the way, I was thinking in that overactive ridiculous mind of mine how I could pull off bringing a mastiff mix into our home of three dogs, one parrot and almost 3 kids without anyone noticing! I was quickly knocked out of my fantasy (that was playing out just fine by the way) when my husband's face popped into my mind...while he is great with the animals I have forced on him already, he is no Dr. Doolittle and everyone has a breaking point!!

Anyway, I asked the guy that stopped to help if he was willing to take a puppy and he said he and his family had been looking for another pup. With that, 'Jim Beam' was already fumbling for the clasp on the leash again more than willing to give it up. He told us that he was planning to keep it and if it got really big he was going to give it away (the pup was probably 4 months and already huge by the way)!! Anyway, with that, the guy that stopped to help put the pup in his van and 'Jim Beam' carried on his merry drunk way fumbling and stumbling!

I have been stressing about the puppy, the man that took it and the drunk man for the last 24 hours but there was no police report of a missing puppy, the guy that took the puppy called me this morning and was telling me how great the new addition is going and as for the drunk....rest assured, he is still wasted!!

* Please note, I wrote my name and number on a piece of paper and gave it to 'Jim Beam' in case he woke and and wanted his dog back again. As of 2011, he never called.  I have spoke with the man that took the dog and while he has since divorced, he and the pup continue to live happily ever after!