"Fred"

Meet Fred.

Fred isn't his real name, of course. We have no idea what his real name is, actually. It happened like this:

Mum and I were driving to run a couple of errands. As we were stopped at a red light, I noticed that the car waiting across the intersection had its hatch open. When I pointed it out to Mum, she explained it by supposing that they had something sticking out of the back of their car. Curious (as always), I looked to see what was sticking out as both we and they turned. Much to my surprise, there was no two-by-four or bike sticking out of the back. A dog jumped out.

I shrieked. (surprise surprise) I told Mum what had happened, and she made a u-turn to rescue the dog that had been inadvertently abandoned. I was additionally concerned because there was another dog in the back of the car. The fate of that dog might be similar, especially if the driver was heading for the freeway.

We picked up the dog (a very trusting, pretty friendly Jack Russel Terrier) and took him to our vet to see if he was micro-chipped. He was, but the contact info was for an animal hospital, not the owner. Not helpful. Fred, as I decided to call him, was licensed in Orange County so it looked as though his owner was vacationing down here. The vet office called the number on his license and his rabies tag, and eventually, we found a phone number for the owner. They left a message with our contact information. Since we had exhausted our options, we put up a sign near where we had found him, and took him home to hang out.

Augusta was highly confused. I think she thought Fred was a toy. Her tail was wagging as she chased him around and jumped over him. She didn't want him to play back, though. He would jump on her and she would snarl at him. I can't really blame her since he was behaving like an non-neutered boy dog, if you know what I mean.

After a few hours, a hysterical woman called us, looking for her dog. We were happy to return Fred to his proper owner. At least, I was. Mum liked him, I think. I found him irritating.

The one regret that I have is that we didn't find out the dog's real name. I guess I'll always refer to him as Fred.

Greyhound #2?

It's a question floating around our house. Should we adopt another greyhound? As far as dogs go, they're pretty low maintenance. Short fur, no drool, very little (if any) barking. Our current pet has peculiarities, though. She's super, super hyper during parts of the day. She's a love sponge (read: climbs into your lap at every available opportunity). She freaks out whenever we come back after leaving her alone. Rampaging, jumping, head-butting.

There are three possible outcomes to getting a second one. The problem is, we don't know which one is probable. We'd ask for a calm one (they usually come that way, but we didn't want a boring dog; we picked the most excited one in the kennel).


Scenario 1: Dog 2 Calms Dog 1 Down
Sometimes dogs can have a calming influence on each other. One gets riled up, but sees that the other one isn't joining in the romp and settles back down with its buddy. Maybe Dog 1 could learn some manners from her new friend.


Scenario 2: Dog 2 Has NO Influence on Dog 1
If we get an aloof dog, it's completely possible that Dog 2 won't be involved in Dog 1's life at all. He could just sleep all the time, maybe watch Dog 1 rampage, but Dog 1 and Dog 2 wouldn't have any common activity. Dog 1 would go her way, Dog 2 would go his. No added chaos, but no less chaos either.

Scenario 3: Dog 1 Gets Dog 2 Wound Up
Knowing Dog 1, it's entirely possible that she'd rub off on a new acquisition. Dog 2 might start out aloof and calm, but see the fun and join in. We'd have two big dogs, full of energy, and lacking in manners. And that sounds overwhelming. Someone (like, one of the people) would get killed in the mayhem.

You see our predicament.