no such thing as an open kennel

Barn alum Arnie hopscotched from a vacation stint in the barn to his new home this week (happy photo). We love the very temporary feeling of having an open kennel. It gives everyone a chance to breathe for a second until a new dog bursts onto the scene. Breeeeathe.



Breathing only lasted a lousy 40 minutes though. No sooner did Arnie drive away with his family than a stray pit bull popped up during a dog walk around the neighborhood. Oh noooooo. Is there no rest for the wicked?

So we lured the shy guy with treats, popped him into the kennel and assessed his situation: Young, healthy and handsome ... intact... no tags ... definitely not a house dog ... very social with people but severely lacking experience with other dogs ... probably wouldn't survive the local shelter due to his color and lack of dog manners ... Sigh. We put word out to the masses, got ready to file a found dog report at our shelter and asked the barn crew to treat him like family, which of course they did. He was very popular with sweet Inga and he told us all about the happy, albeit dog-isolated life he's been living.


Happy day! In a couple of days, his owner was located!

... He's a young guy who's still working out the kinks in owning a young energetic, fence climbing dog. Tim was lining up to spill his best sage advice when the dog owner blurted out, "Do you know where I can get him neutered?" Oh sweet jeebus, that's music to any rescuer's ears. So Mr. Pup - whose name is Ikel by the way - will be joining us at our first East Oakland on-site surgery and training event next month. Huzzah. We can't wait to see him there.

I'm staring at that empty kennel again, but now it's lookin' way sweeter than it did before our stray pup took up temporary residence.