We had a bit of excitement last night around here (you know, because we can always use more chaos) in the form of a visitor on our porch. The animals were all sacked out in various places in the living room and we were just about to begin getting everyone settled in for the night, since it was around nine or so. I happened to glance over at the patio door, and then did a quick double-take — there was a face staring back at me! At first my mind couldn’t quite process what I was seeing, and I thought it was the reflection of one of our animals inside, but then the logical part of my mind reminded me that (a) everyone was asleep and (b) we don’t have a red and white Boxer.

He was standing there with drool hanging down from his lips looking like he really wanted to come in. I went outside to assess the situation while Joy got Maggie hustled off to her crate — up until this point none of the animals had actually realized that there was a strange dog standing on the porch. The dog was very friendly, well-kept, unneutered (which we’re sure is what led to the wandering) and decided I had come out to play. He was wearing a leather collar with a brass plate, and on the plate was a phone number. It was a Raleigh area code, so we were a little skeptical that the number was actually still good, but at least it was a lead to follow…

I called the number and after several rings a rather sleepy sounding guy answered. I explained why I was calling and there was a befuddled silence, then he acknowledged that his brother did have a red and white Boxer but he wasn’t there. “I can’t come and get him right now. Could you bring him to me?” I am not sure he grasped the logistics of our being about 6 hours away and was annoyed that he’d expect the people who found his wandering dog to actually bring it back. So I sicced Joy on him.

The Voice of Animal Control Officer was employed and Joy told him that we had six animals of our own to deal with, were not going to deliver the dog, and he needed to reach his brother ASAP. Within two minutes Joy had extracted the fact that his brother had a cell phone number he could be reached at, and a promise that he’d call it right away and give his brother our phone number. We received a very relieved-sounding call a few minutes later and within ten minutes “Copper” was picked up by his dad, who had recently moved to the area and had been very worried when Copper wandered off while they were grilling outside. So this ended very well (no thanks to the brother) and more importantly, we didn’t get stuck trying to figure out what to do with a 55 pound-ish unneutered male Boxer at nine O’clock at night.