Am I the King of Lost & Found recently? First that laptop and then a couple credit cards (two different times) and now this. (all within a month and a half)

On the way home from that estate sale this morning, I was driving down the street and a little white poodle ran in front of my truck. It was a pretty busy 2-lane road and I pulled over to coax him off the road as about 5-6 cars were lined up trying to get around him. I called him over and he was super friendly ... came right to me. He had a collar with rabies tags as well as an address and phone number. Problem is, the phone number prefix and the address were from the south side of town and I live on the north side. He was at least 15 miles from home.

Crap! I looked around and there were NO houses in the area. A large golf course on one side and a VERY large church with many (empty) ball fields on the other. I had no clue where the mutt came from or where he was headed. I tried calling the number on his tags, but it was disconnected. Damn! I figured the only thing left to do is drive him all the way across town and see if anyone was home.

Now ... here's the problem. I keep my truck spotless and I have cloth interior. This dog had obviously been running a while as he was TOTALLY covered with burrs and MUD! Dang it! I had a rag in my truck and wiped him down the best I could, then just sucked it up and placed him in the passenger side. He was very well behaved but immediately jumped to the driver's side as I got in. When I stated driving, it was obvious he was used to cars as he stood on the seat, paws on the dash and watched out the windshield as we drove.

Ok, about a 1/4 mile down the road, there was a house (the first house I came to), so I decided to stop and ask the people if they recognized the dog from the neighborhood. I rang the bell ... no answer. I knocked on the door a couple times ... no response. In the meantime, I could see this muddy, burr covered dog running back and forth from the driver's seat to the passenger seat, AND jumping up against the windows. All I could think of was what his claws were doing to my window tint!

Nobody home, so I get back in the truck. I REALLY didn't want to drive all the way across town, but I had no real choice. I tried the phone number a couple more times ... (like the message would magically change and the call would go through).

As I was getting ready to pull away, a man and woman ran out of the house and the woman was crying hysterically. WTF?? Turns out it was THEIR dog! He'd gotten out of their fenced yard somehow and they were searching the neighborhood looking for him. They came in the back door and looked out the front windows just as I was pulling away and spotted their dog in my truck!

It was a happy ending and they were very grateful (nope, no tip).

Now I'm due to get my interior shampoo'd! Why me? Hold on to your shit people!!