Before I left to take Brynn to WSU’s veterinary teaching hospital last week, we received an email from an employee at the Josephine County animal control shelter in Grants Pass, Oregon. The shelter had taken in a blind and deaf stray dog they thought was a Dachshund/Beagle mix. No one had come to claim him, and no one was interested in adopting him. The employee, Kelly G., asked "if you guys could help out, because of limited space we cannot keep him here."
Our first thought on hearing "Dachshund/Beagle mix" was … Widget! Could there be another one out there?
It was Thursday morning, when I was bathing Brynn before loading her in the horse trailer, that we connected with Kelly on the phone to find out more about the dog and to discuss logistics. Since I was heading to Pullman, I would be already 5 or 6 hours closer to Oregon. Could the shelter find someone to meet me in Portland or even Bend on Friday? Kelly set off to try and find a volunteer who could transport the little dog.
A few hours later, while I was en route to Pullman, I noticed on my BlackBerry that Kelly had emailed us photos of the dog. I can’t open attachments on my BlackBerry, so I called Alayne to have her check the email on my office computer. She opened the photos and said, "Well … that’s NO Widget! But he’s cute, I just have no idea what he is!"
By Thursday evening Kelly hadn’t found anyone yet who could pick up the dog and meet us somewhere. On Friday morning, I still hadn’t heard anything. So I checked out of the hotel in Pullman and drove back to the veterinary teaching hospital to get the horse trailer and hit the road for Montana. It was just before 9 a.m. as I was reaching the university when my cell phone rang. It was a volunteer for the animal control shelter, Barbara D., who had just learned a few minutes before about the need to transport the dog. Yes, she could meet me in Bend. "Today?," I asked. "You bet," she said.
We worked out our coordinates, determined the relative driving times for each of us to Bend, and I turned the truck around and headed for Oregon.
Several hours later, about 5:30 p.m., I met Barbara and her husband Ron at the PetsMart in Bend. Incredibly, we had arrived within 5 minutes of each other. They are a wonderful, delightful couple who had dropped what they were doing that day to make this trip.
And there he was in the back of their car, the little dog the shelter had named Mr. Bumps because he was always walking into things.
I took one look at him and realized that I couldn’t figure out what he was either… yes on the Dachshund part (maybe … or Corgi?) but what else? No Beagle, I thought. But while his breed mix may be a guess, I did know one thing for sure about him: Here was another member of the short-leg club!
With another 8-hour drive still ahead for Shorty and me, we climbed back in the truck and drove north to Pullman. I finally pulled into the hotel parking lot at 1:30 a.m., dead tired and grateful I had my Jimmy Buffett CD for the last hour of the trip! (Okay, so that would have been a terrific line if only I could have said instead, "dead tired and grateful I had had my Grateful Dead CD for the last hour….")
I digress.
On Saturday morning I piled Shorty back in the truck and went to the teaching hospital to get the horse trailer. After another long day on the road, we arrived at the ranch about 6 p.m. yesterday evening.
I took the photo of Alayne holding this lovable youngster late this afternoon, along with the other photos of him in our isolation yard. He is brimming with self-confidence, adores attention, and likes nothing more than to be picked up and held in our arms. He is totally blind and deaf, just like Spinner. He seems very puppy-ish still, and has a soft, Lab-like mouth. (Dachsund/Brittany spaniel?)
And no, we are not going to name him Shorty, but I wasn’t going to call him Mr. Bumps, either. So let’s have a "name this dog" contest! Please post your suggestions for a new name in the comment section. If we select your proposed name, we’ll send you a custom Rolling Dog Ranch hat or a set of our greeting cards (your choice). But along with the name, you also need to tell us what you think his breed mix is, okay?
(Click on photos for larger image.)
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