The Small Town Renegades

The day started out normally enough.  I'd walked, loved, fed and medicated the dogs and left the house right on time.  Then, it happened.... On my road just before town, there was a Great Dane and a puppy in the road.  Cars were going past, and the older one knew to avoid the cars, but the little one was obviously confused as to what to do.  I honked my horn, thinking I could scare them both back into the yard of the nearby house, or alert the tenants that their dogs were out.  But instead, it startled the puppy who then ran as fast as she could into a nearby field. Without much time to spare, I pulled over to see if I could at least catch the puppy.  When I opened the side door to get a leash, the adult Great Dane ran over to me and jumped into my van.  I only had to catch the puppy, which was a little difficult because she was so scared.  But using my 'happy voice' and wanting to follow its partner in crime, I managed to get them both inside. Fortunately they were both nice and very friendly dogs. Of course neither had collars with ID tags on them.  The puppy quickly became playful and even ate my breakfast that I'd left on the seat.  The big-boy just seemed happy that the adventure was going to continue.    

After stopping several passing cars, I decided to take the duo home and put them into our yard.  Of course pandemonium broke out inside the house when our dogs realized that their turf had been invaded.  I was in such a rush, and so pressed for time by now, but I decided to post on two Facebook pages for our town about the dogs.  Then I took a few more minutes to make signs to put up around where I'd found the dogs. And somehow in all of that, I managed to lose my cell phone, and even locked my keys in my van.  At least something was going right because I was able to find my phone, unlock my van, just as I received the phone call from the one person who I knew could help me--Lydia, my dog-walker.  She knows practically every dog in our town, surely she'd know these two.  Unfortunately she wasn't sure who owned the two renegades, but she told me who she thought they might belong too, and she suggested that I call them and ask.

I very reluctantly made the phone call to the one person I didn't want to call, who confirmed that yes, their two dogs were missing. I was so relieved to have found their owner and I offered to bring them to their home, but she insisted that she'd have her husband come to get the dogs. I told her I wouldn't be there, so he could come anytime.  Our conversation was brief, to the point, and I was politely thanked for the call and keeping the dogs safe.  And just who was the owner of the two dogs I now had in my yard that had caused chaos to break out in my house, me to be late for work, and who'd gotten my clothes dirty by jumping and slobbering on me and who'd eaten my breakfast?  The owner was no one other than my former dog-walker -- You may recall that I had to fire her last fall after she was arrested for stealing prescription medications from (other) client's homes. What are the odds of that?  Do I live in a small town or what?