Tough lesson

MOTS: Hard work and very little time over months may be stressful but it doesn't even compare to the disappointment a single person can hand out in a matter of seconds.

Life can be very stressful (relatively speaking of course).  Just purchased a new home; trying to get organized without enough places to properly put all of the accumulated goods; making necessary adjustments to bills, magazines, habits; keeping the growing number of birds and handful of squirrels well fed; painting...  that is just from moving.

For work there is: installing a new point of sale program for the store and working on a new web site at the same time by myself and doing it all on fewer hours... this includes taking pictures of countless items, measuring and weighing them so our shipping charges are correct, setting prices, typing up policies, and on and on and on.

On to the disappointment...

Imagine with me for a moment, you are driving about 45mph down a reasonably dark road.  Every moment brings you more ice under your tires.  You aren't scared but the truck behind you is getting a little too close for comfort.  Coming toward you is another vehicle which, normally, wouldn't give you any cause for concern; however, this time you suddenly notice a small dog on the left side of the road.  The snow banks are quite high and frozen solid leaving the dog no place to go but along, or in, the road.  As you pass the dog and look in your mirror your heart sinks, the dog is heading into the street.  The oncoming vehicle is barreling past you, no break lights, no swerving... someone doesn't care or isn't paying attention.  Frantically stopping and turning onto the cross street the truck, once riding your hind end, flies around you.  You muster all of the hope you can while you look back to see what happened...

A panicked sigh of relief, the dog made it!

I quickly focused my attention on further oncoming traffic.  Luckily there wasn't any so I turned around and started to head toward the lost pup.  Instead of cooperating, as I knew would NOT happen, the stocky beagle decided to be difficult; although it made me feel much better by heading down a much slower road.  After several minutes of following the beagle down this road it turned, almost instinctively down a long driveway.  I turned down it and decided I would follow this to the end and complete the task of finding the dog's home.  As I gave a slow chase, I noticed that there were two sets of tracks now.  I hadn't noticed them before because it had been walking where cars had driven over, leaving no prints.  I was pretty sure I was following it home.

As I pulled up to this beautiful home I noticed the dog walking up to the porch.  I pulled into the driveway and got out.  As I walked closer to the porch I noticed that there were people home and that the beagle was not exactly pleased that I was on its property.  While it gave me a quiet growl, it walked up to me with tale a waggin'.  I knocked on the door.  A woman came up to the door who had been playing with her young children.  She turned on the light and looked at me as though she lived far enough out to be taken aback by a knock at the door... probably because she lived far enough out to be free from unexpected visitors...

Judging from her look she wasn't exactly excited to open the door and ask what I wanted.  I simply pointed down and politely stated, "I think this is yours."  Slowly she opened the door and the beagle walked in.  She un-apologetically thanked me with very little joy in her voice.  I decided that this was no way to act when presented with your lost canine.  I told her what happened, emphasizing on the "you're lucky, it almost got schmucked by a truck."  Her response?  "We've only had it for a week, a friend couldn't keep it so we took it in."  I nearly offered to give 'it' a better home if that would relieve her burden.  I wished her luck with her new pet to which she wished me luck in finding my way back.

Because the lady called the adorable beagle 'it' and never mentioned a name, I have no idea if the dog was a boy or a girl.  It is extremely hard for me to refer to anything as an 'it' if 'it' deserves a 'him' or a 'her'.

Moral of the story?  No matter how daunting a long term stressful situation can be, it can be instantly dwarfed by a coldhearted response and ensuing utter disappointment that quickly follows.

Something tells me that the husband had the 'friend' with the dog and the wife was certainly not an animal lover.