Spot
A Dog’s Tail of Survival

Since Elaine and I walk every day through Raymond, we see a lot of animals. The ones who are hungry, we feed, and the others who are better off, we pet. On our walks, we used to encounter a medium sized black and white dog who was always traveling, like some male dogs do. He seemed fairly street wise, so we figured he would be OK.  Then one afternoon, I looked out into my front yard, and there was Spot, lying on his side, close to the road. It was obvious that he had been hit by a car, even though he didn’t have any wounds. So I called the police department, and a nice officer showed up to access the situation. Shortly after, a live cage trap was set down in my front yard, and they tried to lure the dog into the cage with food. Sure enough, Spot went slowly into the cage, but he was very careful not to set off the spring that would close the door behind him. Smart dog. He got the food and backed out. After numerous attempts, they finally got hold of him and that was the last time we saw him for a while. When we changed our walking route, we went by a house in Main Street and discovered Spot had a collar on that made him stay in the yard. At first, we weren’t really sure if it was him because he was much fatter than the last time we saw him.

When we went by the house the other day, there was a couple in the yard and we asked if this was the same dog that wandered around town. They said it was and then told us the story about how they adopted him.

Apparently, Spot had somehow lodged a twig or branch up between his upper teeth. He was so weak, that he just stayed on their porch for a couple of days. Finally, the good people took him to the vet and discovered why he was so weak. He couldn’t eat. The vet removed to stick and he recovered.

Now, he sits in a yard full of toys, and he gets to sleep with his adopted family every night. What could be better than a happy ending like this!