Hot Carl
Hot Carl was no little, tiny bunny rabbit. Hot Carl was a dog. A BIG dog. And our Wonder Pets team was down to 2, since Tuck, aka, Hope was at school. This was not going to be an easy job!
Hot Carl was wandering the streets of our neighborhood when we were on our way home from Storytime. Now you may be wondering where I got the name Hot Carl. Though I'd like to take credit for such a ridiculous creative dog name, "Hot Carl" was the name on his blue, bone-shaped tag. The name written just above the disconnected phone number. Since I was not able to reach the owner through his disconnected phone number, and it was -5 degrees outside, I had no choice but to put the dog, the BIG dog, in my car and take him home while I tried to figure out what to do. No big deal, right? WRONG! Not only is Hot Carl a BIG dog, he is apparently unable to lift his back legs more than a few inches off the ground. He hopped his salad plate-sized front paws right up into the back of the car with no problem, but the other half of his 200 pound (plus) body, was still on the ground. 10 minutes later Hot Carl was in the back of my car and I was dripping with sweat (in -5 degree weather) from trying to lift and shove him in.
Getting Hot Carl out of the car was almost as big of an adventure as getting him in. He WOULD NOT stand up and WOULD NOT turn around. I finally had to go to the back seat and push him out, hoping he would not run off before I could get back out of the car and grab his collar. Turned out that wasn't a problem, as he just stood there, with no desire to move. I drug him into the back yard so I could get a towel laid out before I let him inside.
Remember that I said Hot Carl is unable to lift his back feet more than 3 inches off the ground? Here is what happened when I tried to get him to come inside -
I know, you're thinking "Why don't you just grab his collar and pull him in?" Trust me! I tried! I tried pulling on his collar, his body, everything. He kept slipping on the floor and I think that scared him even more!
Once Hot Carl finally got in the house, got warm, and drooled on my couch . . .
. . . I called the number on his City and County registration tag. Animal control came and got him and had an "alternate" phone number for the owner. The owner promptly met animal control in front of our house and explained to them that Hot Carl is able to open a sliding glass door and a gate all by himself! Really??? The same dog that couldn't even get up my back step? Maybe he was just really cold?
Well, Hot Carl is now back in his own home and, once I got the drool cleaned off of everything and the dog hair vacuumed up, our house was back to normal.
Although I could do without the drool and the hair, I DO miss having a dog. :(
4 comments:
Oh my gosh! I laughed and laughed! I'd like to see him open said sliding door and gate! You are an amazing animal rescuer!
That is exactly how I get Bo into the car! Cute story!
Hello Joanna. I´m a blog friend of your mom´s and thought I´d check your blog out. This post was so hilarious, I can see where you get your wit from! :) I really admire you for taking that HUGE dog in!
Your kids are just the cutest!
Hi, Joanna! This is my first time here, and I like what I see! My family jokes that I have an invisible neon sign on the roof that says "all strays welcome here". They seem to show up at least once a month, and I'm amazed at the number that DON'T have any ID at all, not even a rabies tag. I actually write our phone number on the back of the rabies tag with a laundry marker, plus have the ID tag. Some dogs I have kept because I can't seem to keep from getting attached (like with Thunder!), and some I just have to call animal control after a couple of days of putting up signs and hope all turns out well.
I've just remembered a time when my two year old daughter kept telling me there was a monkey living under our house (a crawl space), and one day driving forward out of the driveway I saw huge English sheep dog in the side view mirror coming out from under the house. How she thought it was a monkey is beyond me! We took it in and tried to clean it up - it was huge and a little scarey because I think it had those light blue eyes. It didn't like our cats or our other dogs, so we put an ad in the paper and a man and his daughter came and adopted it as they were familiar with the breed.
Sorry, don't get me started on animal stories!
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