On our way home from dance last night we witnessed a man drop off a dog on the side of our road and drive away. The dog had no collar and my daughter immediately knew it had been abandoned.  She panicked. “Mama you have to get that dog! That man just left him and there is no one to take care of him or feed him.  The coyotes might eat him!  He will be so scared all alone in the dark!”

I have tried to instill a sense of compassion in my children, but adopting a dog was not high on my list.  The look on my daughter’s face shamed me into driving slowly so the dog could follow us home. It looked like a nice dog, but I wasn’t sure if it would be aggressive. After all, it had just been left on the side of a country road, so who knows how it had been treated?!

We got home and my husband put him in our outside kennel with food. I immediately posted a picture to Facebook, hoping to find new owners and had a Facebook friend offer to adopt him. Can I get an amen?! We planned to meet the next day after work.

The next morning I went to let our dog outside and feed “Wolfie” before going to the office.  The gate was standing wide open and Wolfie was gone. I went down the hill and someone or something had kicked in the gate of the kennel. I immediately thought the man that left him changed his mind or got mad and took him. (Yes, I jumped to conclusions!)

Next thing I know, my dog is barking…and I hear another dog barking. “Wolfie” came down out of the woods behind our home and went back down and laid at the kennel gate. What the what? My husband came home and repaired the gate and Wolfie happily went back in the kennel and stayed there until my husband could meet with his new owner later in the day.

We found a collar and the dog literally rolled on its side and waited for my husband to put on the collar and leash. Ollie Augustus on the other hand, is our hyper attention-needy dog that can’t even walk on a leash. Yes, my husband pointed out Wolfie’s ability to walk rather than spaz out and drag me as he walked to his car. For a moment I debated which dog we should give up, I’m not going to lie.

As my husband loaded the dog into his back seat, my girls started crying about how much they would miss Wolfie.  You know, the dog we had for less than 24 hours.

I still don’t know how that gate was opened, but I am just grateful Wolfie found a new owner to love him and give him a new name. Vince is apparently a cool dog that is mellow and great to have around.