Found the dog, not the thanks.

We were out for a walk the other day, down to the gym for a workout then our continued walk home the long way around.

It wasn’t a terribly warm, about 6-7 degrees c. After a workout at the gym we walked up Mt. Tolmie, and as we did, an enthusiastic dog ran up to us. He was an older dog, with some black lab in there somewhere. He was very friendly, and we expected his owner to be close by.

There was no one around, so we continued our walk expecting someone to claim him. He just kept following us. We continued to the top of Mt Tolmie – we couldn’t leave him so we called the number on his dog license, the police non emergency line. After a bit of a wait, they connected us to the owner, who asked us to walk him home, her mother in law was out driving around looking for him. We explained to the owner that we were at the top of Mt. Tolmie, on the reservoir. There are two, and she lived at the smaller one down the hill. We weren’t far, perhaps a few hundred metres, back down the hill, in opposite direction for us. We did walk the dog home expecting someone at the house to collect the dog.

We called the owner again, to verify that we were at the right house. No one was there, in the end we suggested that we tie the dog up at the house, which was OK with her.

The dog’s owner sort of thanked us for our effort, but didn’t apologize for the inconvenience, because we were. I was so cold after standing around and waiting; this had been after a workout and a 6km walk and there were another 2+ to get home.

A few days have passed, so I think the timeframe for a call to say thanks is over. Are we wrong in thinking that most pet owners would have been a lot more thankful for such an effort? When we encountered the dog, he was running towards a busy road with fast moving traffic. Had he been let to wander, who knows how things might have turned out.

You do the right thing, because it’s the right thing to do. We would do the same again.

We’re just disappointed that she did not, and has not recognized that it was fairly big effort on the part of strangers to keep her dog safe. A sincere thank you recognizing the effort would have been appreciated.

Humans baffle me sometimes.