I was sitting in at Christmas, undergoing the usual holiday blues, when I heard quite a commotion outside that turned out, upon hurried inspection, to be the diminutive little chap you see here perched so cozily in my lap, only in a confrontation with a rather large mongrel at the time.  The little fellow doing the screaming was about done in from the cold; shivering, looking almost frozen stiff. The photo above was taken after I had retrieved him from outside, given him a warm bath, dried him off, gave him some food & water, then cuddled him until he fell asleep in my arms.

I'm on the phone, trying to locate an owner, but not having any luck.  Shortly after that phone call was made, I fired up my computer and made a couple of "Found Dog" fliers, determined to do what I could in the morning.  The following morning, as I was about to post the first flier, I noticed a flier already posted.  On it, there was a picture of a little girl with her arms wrapped tightly around a little dog that very much matched that of the one who had disturbed my gloom, & telling of the trauma of the loss of her little friend.  I took the flier home, called the number, and verified that I had, in fact, found the "right" dog; Lucky.

It seems Lucky had been doing his nightly "business" out in his yard 3 days before I found him, when the sound of firecrackers exploding nearby frightened him into heading for the hills (which are very hard to find in South Louisiana, believe me...).  Lucky somehow made it the 3 miles or so to my front door, enduring sub-freezing temperatures the whole time.

After getting off the phone, I immediately recycled a Christmas bow, attached it to his collar, packed up the bag of food I had gotten for him, & brought him home.  Below is a picture of the best Christmas present anyone could ever hope for.  I never really got the little girl's name, because I was too busy trying to dodge reward-proffering mom, aunts, friends, and family who had all gathered to welcome the little meanderer home.  I stayed long enough to get the quick picture you see below, then headed back home, Christmas spirit once again intact.

Other Animals I've Known & Loved

At left is Buffy. I adopted her from the pound when I was stationed in Germany, then took her back to the States with me. She was the sweetest dog I ever owned. She was always so good with kids, but VERY jealous of anything on four legs that even resembled another dog. We were together about 10 years.

This is Andrew. He was "deposited" on my dad's front lawn after the hurricane in 1992. There were 2 of them that got blown out of their nest from all the wind, and neither had his eyes open nor much fur to speak of. I spent literally weeks mixing up eggs & evaporated milk & feeding them (although I lost the smaller of the two). After several months of riding on my shoulder, Andrew graduated from squirrel school & was repatriated to the pecan trees around my dad's home. (I think my mom may have wanted him "repatriated" more than anyone because of a little incident during which he unexpectedly jumped on her shoulder, and she almost had an accident.) He would periodically come out of the tree to visit for about a year, then he got lost in the crowd.

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