Unexpected birthday wishes!

4 May 2007 Comments Off

I usually hate my birthday. Usually, things start off fine but then wrenches just pummel my plans. Usually, I’ll have some fantastic birthday thing that I’m going to do and then it just rains on my parade. I was prepared this year. I just knew that May 3rd was going to be just as nasty as any birthday I’d had before. My expectations for the day were very low. Can you imagine my surprise when things actually turned out so that my birthday was quite nice?!?

The day started out nice when an unexpected bouquet of flowers arrived at my office complete with touching card and gift certificate to The Rouge Spa… from my secret admirer (really my DH).

Then our home inspection for our dog adoption went fantastic. We had a nice chat with the lady from the rescue organization, we got to meet her dog, she got to meet Maggie and Solomon, and everything went smoothly.

Then we jetted off to FunDogs since it was supposed to be Dog Party Games to commemorate my birthday… and what did I find?!? Rhonda had thrown an actual party for me!!! There were streamers decorating Dog Day Afternoon and Clint made cupcakes (for the people), and we just had a blast! We taught the dogs to jump through hoola-hoops (woo-hoo). And then, I was surprised again when Rhonda brought out a huge bunch of balloons and a birthday gift! She got me the most beautiful braided leather leash you’ve ever seen. It’s so soft and pretty. I just love it! She said that she was trying to think of something “non-dog-related” to get me, but couldn’t come up with anything so this is what she came up with. I think it’s perfect.

When Steve and I got home after dinner and FunDogs we heard the distinct noise of dog tags jingling. I figured that it was our neighbor’s new dog because they’re notorious for just letting him out to pee without any supervision or any fence. I called the dog to me and realized that, nope, not the neighbor’s dog… he was a white & tan pit-bull mix. I didn’t hesitate, just called him to me and grabbed his collar. Just about that time Steve yelled, “Look there’s another one!” And right behind his friend trotted up a dark brown female. I could only assume that they belonged together. Luckily, one of them had ID tags on. So we leashed the dogs and I called the local number. I woke up the man on the other end.

“Do you have two dogs?” I asked.

“Yes, why?” the man answered (in a not so friendly tone).

“Because I have them. They were running loose in the neighborhood and I have them now. I’d like to return them to you, can you tell me where you live?” I asked.

Now very irritated, “My dogs are NOT running loose. They’re not mine,” he said.

“Are you sure? You’re number is on their tags.” I reply.

“They’re not my dogs.” he states in a rather rude manner.

Then I called the second number. I got a chikie-poo’s voicemail. Fabulous. “Hi… this is…. I have your two dogs…. I live at….. you’ll probably want to come get them…” I called a couple of more times and still go the voicemail. By this time, Cody & the female (who didn’t have a tag so I don’t know her name) were at home in our backyard and I was starting to get worried that we’d just acquired two dogs from a different type of “rescue.” That’s when I called Animal Control/the Sheriff’s office. The dispatcher told me I had two options. (A) I could let the dogs go, back the way I found them, roaming free; or (B) I could keep them on my property, but since they weren’t mean, something wrong with them, hadn’t bitten anyone they weren’t going to come pick them up and I’d have to wait for regular business hours to call Animal Control again to come pick them up. I told the dispatcher that letting them go was a moronic suggestion and that I’d just keep them in the fence. Steve suggested I break out the cell-phone stalker profile and call the chickie-poo obsessively until she answered since her cellphone wasn’t going straight to voicemail. I agreed and proceeded to do just that. Eventually she answered. Turns out, they’re not her dogs anymore. A “friend” is keeping them. Turns out the friend is her ex-boyfriend. Who, incidentally, is only in the area settling his late father’s estate. She claims that she was studying for finals and that’s why she didn’t answer the phone. Thursday night, end of the spring semester? She was partying.

Anyway, the ex-boyfriend called and did come get the dogs. I was hesitant to surrender them simply because I feel like this is going to happen again since he’s jerry-rigged a piece of plywood to attempt to keep them on the deck and there’s no fence. And now, since I’m the nice lady with the treats and the fenced backyard with the toys… they’re going to come directly back to my house!

Moral of the story? Tag your dogs with the most current info. It costs like $3.00 at PetSmart. His excuse for why the brown female didn’t have a tag was that she’s microchipped. Well, guess what? I don’t have a scanning gun. So if she gets picked up by anyone but a shelter it’s likely she’ll never be seen from again.

Damn irresponsible dog owners.

Then… this morning (I know, it just keeps going on and on and on!) I got into work and there was a message from the new county archaeologist that he is doing a dig today at the original Loudoun County Gaol and he’d love for me to be a part of it. Well, I had a decent amount of work, but I saw fit to go out there on my lunch hour and play in the dirt. When he was introducing me to some of the other volunteers out there one asked, “Oh, so you used to be an archaeologist?” and without a missed beat, Mike chimed in, “No, she still is an archaeologist. Once an archaeologist always an archaeologist.” I was happy.

Tonight is my family birthday dinner at Sweetwater tonight… I’ll be a little dirty.

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