It turns out this dog showed up a few months ago in their 4-H leader's neighborhood. The various neighbors have been feeding him. The dog has a rabies tag, but the veterinarian said that the owner had moved and the clinic no longer had contact information. It appeared the owners had dumped the dog out in the "country" when they left town--a sad and all too common occurrence.
Pretty soon, my kids show up with this giant hairy beast in my pickup. The 4-H leader had suggested we could do a trial run with the dog and if it wasn't working, we could bring him back.
Here's the deal. This dog is super nice. He followed us around all over the yard, just wanting to be around us. The kids loved him immediately. To top it off, he reminded me of the dog we had when I was growing up. I loved that dog!
I really wanted to agree to keep him, but I knew I needed to be a responsible adult and pet owner. Our menagerie currently consists of seven horses, six goats, fourteen chickens, and two each of dogs, cats, and rabbits, plus our boarder's horse. At the moment, I feel like our animal resources (time, energy, and finances) are pretty close to being maxed out. There is no way that I want to become an animal rescue that is in need of rescue! We gave the kids two days to play with this dog and then sent him back to the 4-H leader before my resolve could waver. I'm officially a mean mom!