Faith

At about 5pm Wednesday evening I was leaving for my teaching class when I met Faith. Someone had closed the garden gates and abandoned their puppy in our garden. At first I thought Mirpot had forgotten to open the gates after she had taken Rags and Woozer for a run, but I had driven into the house after that so I knew it couldn't be the case. Then I thought some random stranger had closed our gates for us. It had happened before. A few years ago someone had locked our gates with a chain and padlock and we had to get Michael (my brother in law) to cut them open. As I got out of the car to open them a little black and white dog ran out from the patch of scrub to the right of the gate and ran into the beam of the car headlights (it was dark by this time in the evening). She peered anxiously out of the gate and appeared nervous and distressed. I was angry because I jumped to the conclusion that some stranger had decided to use our garden as a park and run their dog in it (it is a big garden). As a human being failed to appear and I realised the dog was a puppy it soon dawned on me that the poor little thing had been abandoned. I had often heard of things like this happening, but I had never experienced it first hand before. I was fuming with the scum who would dump their puppy - especially dumping her by locking her into someone else's garden! She was shy and wouldn't come up to me at first, but soon she let me pet her and I managed to lift her into the car. She looked like a collie cross to me, and I'd say was about 4 -5 months old. She had a nice collar on her, slightly chewed, but no name tag. I took her up to the house where Mirpot took her inside. After my teaching class I came home to find the pup playing with Rags! I couldn't believe it, Rags is usually so cautious with new dogs, but they were having an energetic game. Mapot looked flushed and was close to hysterics at the thought of another dog in the house. As I looked after the pup for the evening my affection for her grew. I dubbed her Faith (after the fighting dog left for dead in 'In Search of the Moon') and my mind boggles at why anyone would want to get rid of her. She was friendly, affectionate, intelligent, well mannered. Janna and Rags practically fought to play with her and apart from a couple of accidents when she was first taken into the house, she was clean. She was used to a house, looked healthy and well fed and knew how to sit. She took a while to settle down that night - partly due to the excitement of the day and to the lack of exercise (I doubt it she had had a run in a couple of days and was a lively pup) but around 12am we all managed to get some sleep. This morning she had an hour of play with a friend's dog over acres of fields and, when it was time to go, she jumped happily back into the car. In the afternoon she had a run with Janna in the garden where they played together happily and she came back when I called her. For only knowing her a few hours she was an excellent dog. Unfortunately, much as I would have loved to keep her, I couldn't. I phoned Collon Animal Sanctuary but they were booked up until next week. Lyn Archer, the fantastic woman who works there, recommended I contact the Dog Warden as they have got very good at rehoming. I took her down to the pound and the warden was very nice. He assured me that she wouldn't be put down and that she would find a home no problem. He checked her for a microchip and said they would keep her for 5 days in case anyone claimed her and then she would go on to an animal sanctuary. I felt so mean as she was carried away, abandoning her again. She was such a lovely dog. People, if you can't look after a dog, don't get one! And if you have one and can't cope, please please please PLEASE give them to an animal sanctuary or the dog pound, don't dump them in someone else's garden or, worse still, on the side of the road.