It Takes a Thief

Oh Missy, as the old saying goes, "You can take the girl off the streets, but you can't take the street out of the girl." We have had Missy for at least 5 years. I rescued this big German Shepard from her old home when the family that raised her, moved and left their dehydrated dog and 5 nursing puppies behind. It was a cold November afternoon, the day before Thanksgiving, when one of the school bus drivers noticed the empty house as she was driving by. The kids were not out waiting to be picked up, the cars were not around and the once active little home with 4 children were gone, moved elsewhere. The only familiar sight was their dog and her puppies. Janice, the bus driver, told me of the abandoned Shepard and her litter, then continued to express how mad she was that they up and left her. Wanting to see for myself, I waited for school to get out, went home and got one of my boys and we drove to see the poor mama and her babies.

Sure enough, they were still there. The female was whining and the puppies kept trying to latch on to her. It was clear that the family had moved, and by the looks of the dog, it had been awhile.

The only thing left to do was take the dog home along with her 5 little suckling puppies. I didn't have a plan, all I could think of at the time was, I needed to get her home and fed. The first thing she did was down a couple of bowls of water before she started in on eating. The puppies were also interested in the food and didn't hesitate to gobble up their mama's meal. I put everyone in the back yard for safe keeping until I devised a plan as to what I was going to do with them. Mama dog, seeming content that her puppies had a good meal, felt this was a good time to start the weaning process and jumped the fence. She didn't go anywhere, just stayed in the front yard and took a nap.

OK, so now what do I do? The husband was still at work and I have a large dog and 5 puppies to worry about.....So I called him, he wasn't as surprised as I thought he'd be, although he did suggest I should take them to the pound. Puppies are a hot commodity and get adopted rather easily, but what about the female, adult dogs aren't so lucky. No, I was just going to have to come up with a different plan. Then the husband came home and after seeing for himself, he too realized they couldn't go to the animal shelter. We put the word out and after two weeks all the puppies had new loving families. We decided to keep mama dog and named her Missy. She was happy and settled in, but whenever we went somewhere she would run behind our car, obviously worried we were going to leave her. This is when she came up with a back up plan and started hanging out with our neighbors. Missy would lay on their porch and play with their children. With her gentle nature and sweet disposition the neighbors took to our new dog and Missy became part of their family as well.

Missy has the best of both worlds now, she has two families. Eats at our house and sleeps in theirs. She gets dog treats on a regular basis along with big raw hide bones - complements of the neighbors.

So why does she continue to steal?? This dog brings home a variety of loot, and where it comes from, I don't even want to know. We get baseball mitts, other dog bowls, dirty diapers, big ham bones, gloves, shoes, bags of cat food, the list is endless. This time she brought a full size steelhead home. It had been gutted and cleaned I'm betting it was someones barbecue dinner. I'm sure the thieving stems from her abandonment days, necessary for survival, but that's all in the past. She has a wonderful life now with everything a dog could ask for. I'm beginning to wonder if she has become a kleptomaniac and feels the need to steal. I just hope no one finds out who she belongs to. Although, I suppose I could always refer them to my neighbors.....