I know many are going to be confused by the title of this blog entry. It is not about "petfinders," the directory of homeless pets. Instead, this is a group of animal lovers who try to find shelter dogs and cats homes before their "big day" arrives. I think you know what I mean. These people are tireless champions of the most neglected in our society, the stray dogs and cats that you see in the streets of virtually any city in America. It is amazing how many lives they are able to save. But, regardless of how much they try, Pet Finders organization can't save them all. This is the part of the story where I come in to "save the day," in a manner of speaking.

To begin, as many who have been to my blog (before I went on my six month hiatus), I have a three-year old beagle named Ralph. Ralph is still as full of mischief as he ever was. I love him to death. But, the thing about Ralph, he is jealous of me. I have taken in two homeless dogs before. Ralph wasn't having any of it. I eventually got both into nice families with loving children. As I was sitting at my kitchen table drinking coffee (with Ralph watching me...he loves to watch me drink coffee), I got a phone call from a friend from Pet Finders. She was frantic. She pleaded with me to go to the local animal shelter and save "Dusty." "Dusty," as I later found out, was a Heinz 57 dog...a little bit of everything. But, he seemed to have a bit more of cocker spaniel in him than the other 56 varieties. So, this friend told me Dusty had until 5PM to be adopted...or else.

Well, you can imagine what that made me feel like. I told her that Ralph doesn't care for other dogs. He feels like they are intruding on his territory and he won't tolerate it. She goes on to say, "You're my last hope...you're Dusty's last hope." God, what was I to do? So, to make a long story short, I went to the shelter, looked into those very sad eyes of Dusty...and adopted him. Ralph would just have to get over himself.

So, I brought Dusty to his new home in my old Nissan truck (or I should say Ralph's truck...he won't ride in any other vehicle but that truck) and Ralph was in the back yard barking as usual when I would drive up. Boy, I'm thinking how is this going to work out. Well, it is almost as if Ralph knew Dusty was at death's door. I say that because miracles of miracles, Ralph went over to the trembling Dusty, licked his ears and, well, it seemed like Ralph was just happy to see him. They are both becoming fast friends now. They are playing in the living room with an old rag that Ralph loves for me to play tug of war with him. Now, he's got a new playmate to replace me in tug of war. And, you know what? I feel good...really good about myself today. You will too if you go save an animal, whether it be a dog cat, rabbit or whatever, at your local shelter.