Ok, so the day started off well. "Early", as JTJ decided to call her, took quickly to us. We fed her and gave her water and put her on our back porch for the morning. We took her out to the back yard to do her thing every two hours. She was very gentle and happy.
In the afternoon, I moved her to the bathroom so that we could go in and out to get ready for kids activities. "Early" needed to go outside before we left to take kids to the pool, so I asked Greg to take her. Now, I knew that the dog had a few days ago been picked up off the street by a neighborhood kid. I knew, too, that this same neighborhood kid came to my house on Sunday asking for scraps to feed his "new dog". Anyways, Greg took Early out. Neighborhood children saw Early and made a quick report to the neighborhood boy that we had his dog. (Great.)
While all that's happening, our community members come over to see our newly found dog. I barricade the kitchen and let Early run around in there for a few minutes so that she can get to know folks. After they were done seeing her, we put her back on the porch and went to the pool.
On the way to the pool, in order to ward off any speculation, Greg stopped at the neighborhood boy's house and let him know that we had the dog.
Fastforward 3 hours, we get home and put the boys down for a nap. We're in our room, talking about what to do with the dog. Greg doesn't like the idea of adopting this dog, but she seems neglected and we'd at least take better care of her than she's had already. I sort of like the idea of adopting the dog. We've been talking all day about how it almost felt like she was adopting us: following us in our walk, being so gentle and friendly, obeying our commands. Plus, I was sort of in love with the idea of doing something out of the ordinary, spontaneous, free.
As we're talking about all the possibilities and we're starting to settle into the idea of maybe taking her to the vet and getting her checked out and going from there, there's a knock at the door. Boys are napping, we're talking, we decide not to answer. More knocks. Then, we see three people coming up our back steps.
It is a community member, the neighborhood boy, and the neighborhood boy's very intimidating Dad. Now Early is barking on the back porch and our dog, Matthew, is barking inside. The back porch door is locked and so is our back door. Greg unlocks it and asks the three people to come back to the front of the house. Our community member replies emphatically, "Greg, it is THEIR dog!"
At that moment, my heart begins to sink. I hear the boy and Dad saying that they are going to take the dog home. We have no time and no way we can argue or debate or discuss the matter. At this point, we've gotta wake up JTJ from his nap so he can say goodbye to "Early".
We wake JTJ up and he says goodbye. He cries a little, but takes it pretty well. I, on the other hand, don't take it as well. I'm crushed. I'm sad because we're having to give the dog up without really deciding for ourselves if that's what we're going to do. I'm sad because this stray dog is being claimed by someone who I wonder will be able to take care of it. I'm sad because I was going to have to lose the gleamy eyed feeling of doing something so spontaneous and fun and free. I'm sad because it feels like my time, decision, house, and family has just been invaded upon and taken under siege.
Before "Early" leaves, I stop the neighborhood boy and let him know that I didn't like the way he approached the matter, that I wished that he thought more thoroughly about how his actions would affect other people. (Me, JTJ, Early) Then, I went inside and closed the bathroom door and had a good cry. Silly, I know. I'd only known this dog for 9 hours and I was sad to see it go.
Greg was still chatting with the community member, so I went around the corner for comfort, shed a few tears, and went home.
When JTJ woke back up from his nap, he didn't seem phased. I, however, can't get the whole scenario out of my head. At this point, I don't really wan the dog back (necessarily), I want the feeling back. The feeling of doing something free, fun, loving, and outrageous the just for the sake of it feeling.
Not related to Early, but related to the situation, I'm still upset about how the whole thing went down. I just wish we'd had time to work it all out. I wish we'd had time to talk things out, amongst ourselves and our neighbor. I wish we'd had time to say a proper goodbye. I wish the community member and neighbors would respect the boundaries of our home and lives so that we could have that time and so that we could have the physical space not to be invaded upon.
Oh well, enough "I wishing". We've got a dog, one that one of our interns would accuse us of not appreciating, so it is not like we needed another.
Goodbye Early Girl. Take Care. It was fun while it lasted.
