Visitor, Guest or Permanent Resident?

Last week was kind of heavy. A man in our church, only in his late 40's, passed away on Tuesday after a long, long time struggling with brain cancer. His funeral was on Friday. Hubby got the day off for us to go to the service in a nearby town. I spent the morning doing a few errands, washing the Durango, and fueling up. As I was done fueling up, I got in the Durango and saw this red dog walk in front of me, and sit down by the fuel pumps. I thought, "Hmm! A Red Heeler. Pretty!" It was evidently a mama dog, and I got out to see her. She was friendly, I pet her. She had no collar. "Hmm." I thought.


At this point, I've got to explain that Hubby and I love Blue Heeler and Red Heeler dogs. We've wanted to get one. I knew he would like to at least see her. So I got the bright idea to see if she'd ride with me the few blocks to our house. I opened the side door, and she sniffed at the seat, but thought that was too high. So I patted the floor, and she hopped right in and acted right at home. All the way to our house, she went back and forth between the windows, looking out.


I pulled up in front of the house, and she got out. She started to go on a sniffing hunt around the side of the house, but I called her back, and opened the front door to go in. Not wanting to shock the guys TOO much, I yelled as she walked in ahead of me, "Surprise! Surprise!" Heh. She came around the couch, and Hubby and Younger Son nearly had a fit! A nice fit. They liked her! She walked around the house and sniffed at things and checked rooms out. She hopped up on our bed at one point. I thought she was hungry, so we went in the kitchen and I fed her some lunchmeat. She sat and politely took pieces from my fingers without biting. Nice girl!


I hollered at Younger Son, "Go get the camera!" So he brought it, and I started taking pictures. The dining room was too dark. (DON'T look at the junk piled around! We have a small house, no storage to speak of, and I'm seriously trying to get rid of stuff! ha ha)



So we went in the kitchen where there was more light. But she kept moving her head, and I kept getting blurry shots! While we were in the kitchen, Older Son came in and made a surprised gesture towards her with his hands as if to say, "What's THIS???" He said at first he thought she was a coyote!




So we went back outside.




Purty gal!




Younger Son came out and started to make friends with her.




She enjoyed the attention.




Let's go explore the yard.




This is an example of the joy she brought to my/our day! We needed this little visitor.




Checking out our back steps. (Which we obviously don't use. The back door is unusable and is basically sealed shut. We want to replace it eventually, but it just hasn't been done yet! Are you beginning to get a picture of our silly house?)




Exploring the yard.




We all just loved her to pieces immediately.




Back inside for awhile.




She layed in the kitchen and by the front door as if she'd always lived here and owned the place.



Hubby called the local police that we had found a stray, etc. He said if no one claimed her, we could keep her.


But, we had to get dressed and leave for the service. So we did that, went out to the Durango, opened the doors to get in, and IN SHE WENT. She parked herself in the back seat with Younger Son and WOULD NOT LEAVE. No coaxing or cajoling would get her to come out! I finally had to go around, in my good clothes, and LIFT HER OUT! And I could tell she didn't want to leave. But I put her down, and explained we had to go and she couldn't go with us. We should've just put her in the house, but we didn't. We left her out. (Good thing, it was over four hours until we got back!) She kind of followed us, but we went on. We got home, and she wasn't around. :( Sad. BUT ... several have seen her around, and we think she might have pups hidden somewhere nearby, or someone dumped her, or something. So if we see her again, we're not going to leave her loose again. If someone claims her, OK, but if not ... and we find her ... SHE'S OURS! I think if nothing else, God sent her to cheer us all up when we sorely needed it. It worked!