Skwisgaar

I have spent most of the last two days cuddling on my couch with this fellow:

Garrett and co. found him wandering around the streets near our place at midnight on Wednesday on their way home from a Children of Bodom concert, and brought him in because of course they didn't want to leave him out there.  They of course named him "Skwisgaar."

When they first brought him upstairs, he could not calm down, and he was beyond thirsty.  He ran and jumped and wouldn't sit still, and covered our kitchen floor because he's a messy drinker.  I was frustrated, and couldn't wait for animal control to come get him; I didn't want to get too attached, and with all that energy, I was worried he'd tear the place apart.  He was clearly still a puppy - I guessed 6-8 months, but big for a dog that age.

But as the night wore on, he calmed down a little, and settled into Garrett's room to sleep.  He woke me up on Thursday morning with his whining, but finally settled in on the couch and slept some more until I woke up to take him out.  He pulled on his leash, but after he peed, he calmed down.  When I brought him back into the apartment and settled in to drink my tea, he crawled up on the couch and lay his head in my lap.  That was it, I was in love. 

Over the course of Wednesday, while I waited at home all day for animal control (who never came) Skwisgaar and I became best friends.  He followed me around, I made him chicken and rice for breakfast, we played with his makeshift toy (an old t-shirt, knotted up - he liked tug of war) and, of course, cuddled on the couch while I tried to figure out where he belonged and what I was going to do if animal control couldn't find his home and put him up for adoption.  I always tell myself I can't have a dog - I don't have a car to get a dog to or from the vet, my parents, Green Lake, etc.  But I loved this dog already, and couldn't stand the idea of him languishing in a shelter with nobody to appreciate how great he was.

Animal control didn't come yesterday.  Luckily, a neighbor in my building brought us some dog food to feed him, so we kept him for another night.  This morning, I posted for a missing dog on Craigslist, and read for school while Skwisgaar slept with his head in my lap.  A response came in from Craigslist, somebody saying they didn't know who he belonged to, but they'd seen him in the neighborhood and thought he lived nearby.

Distraught at the idea of leaving him in a shelter while we went away this weekend, I took him out and started going door to door at all the big buildings in my area, asking if anybody was missing a dog.  Nobody was, although one nice guy did give me a real leash, which was great.  But one doorman called down a resident of his building, who he said knew a lot of the dog owners in the area.  The gentleman didn't, but he looked across the street at the big field where the dogs play, and saw somebody we knew.  We walked out to meet her, and she took one look at our Skwisgaar, and yelled "Kaiser?"  And it was.  She didn't know his owner's name, but she knew where he lived.  

After a good run in the field (she assured me he could be off-leash, and he did just fine) we took him to the building where his owner lived - exactly kitty corner my building.  We found the property manager, who also immediately recognized Kaiser.  After about an hour to wait for his owner to come home from work and get him, I said goodbye to Skwisgaar.

And now I'm sitting on the couch by myself.  There's no dog begging me to play tug of war, or wandering around the kitchen sniffing for spilled food, or snuggling closer and closer in to my side until he lays his head in my lap and dozes off.  And I miss him.  I did tell his owner I'd be happy to dog-sit, but it won't be the same.

The moral of this story is I have REALLY got to work on getting myself a dog.  And then I have to find one as awesome as Skwisgaar/Kaiser, because he was great.