On Monday morning we got a surprise - our dogs were making a commotion and we thought they had a turtle by the fence, like the last time. But instead, they showed us there was a puppy outside our fence in a thicket in the woods. We coaxed him along the fence until we could get him near the gate, and Mark went around and got him. We estimated his age to be about 5 weeks old, based on his teeth. He looks like a shepherd mix, and he will likely be a dog at least as big as ours. He was covered in seed ticks - Mark got the worst off his eyelids and from in between his toes and armpits etc.. we're still combing and washing them off of him, three days later.
We have no idea how he got out here in the middle of nowhere so young - we probably don't want to know - but it is good we found him when we did. Esme had just gotten on the school bus, and Mark and I were out looking at the garden after watering chickens etc..
some of our 'superhero' dogs who ended up being rescuers
from left, Sweetie, Freckles, Spud, Nova and Lucy
Minerva was trying to help us wash him up today, and he kept nipping at her ears. We gave him another soak and another comb down. Minerva is very mothering - being Freckles and Lucy's mom... she is happy to have a 'baby' around again, you can tell by her expressions and how she tolerates him attempting to pounce on her tail.. she lets him have some leeway but not as much as if he was truly her own.
He is an extremely good puppy - knows how to go outside with us and comes back in (except when he wanted to eat the chicken's food, then he was hardheaded).. and our dogs are tolerating him but not quite to the point of wanting to be chewed on yet. He was a bit afraid of us (and of Esme when he first saw her) but then he became overjoyed that we were nice to him and helped him find food and water and etc etc...
He found an abandoned tennis ball under our couch and drug it up the stairs to put in Mark's slipper. He also greeted our cats with a very familiar jump and play stance - so wherever he was before, he knew food and water dishes, tennis balls and other dogs and cats. It makes it even more mysterious that he ended up here, ten miles from anywhere, and got lucky enough to find a house with dogs who would go and tell their people to help him. If our dogs hadn't done their 'alert bark'.. we definitely wouldn't have looked that hard by the fence - and he is all brown and black, so it would have been hard to see him in the forest shadows unless he was right by the fence making noise. It truly is a subtropical jungle out there on that side of the fence.
So, this is Rex. And it looks like he is staying for good. We did call two shelters and ask, but neither had any reports of anyone losing a young puppy - all adults. So, he was likely dropped off / abandoned on the county road, but I guess we will never really know.
Welcome to your new home Rex.
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