A Friendly Neighborhood Stray

A friendly neighborhood stray! 

Okay, be honest – how many of you, when you read the title, and saw “friendly neighborhood,” thought of Spider-Man? Well, I want to tell you not about a super-hero, but about a dog. Who really is friendly and was a neighborhood dog. On August 29, 2022, my Dad and I were walking my dog, Sunny, when all of a sudden, I heard her start whining. She usually does that when she sees people or other dogs because she’s so friendly. So I turned around and saw this stray with no collar following us. So Sunny and the stray started to play. He followed us around the block.

I started calling him  “Shadow.” He followed us home. So to keep him from getting hit by a car, my dad and I decided to let him, Shadow, stay with Sunny in her fenced in backyard until my dad could take him to the shelter to get adopted. Sunny, who loves other dogs and prefers to sleep outside, begged to come in that night. I think she was jealous of our guest and wanted more attention than usual. 

The next morning brought quite a surprise. The fence gate was wide open and Shadow was gone. My good dog Sunny was lying by the open gate. At first I thought maybe Shadow’s owner had found him and taken him home, but then we realized they probably wouldn’t have left the gate open for Sunny. And sure enough, on our very next walk, Sunny started to cry again, and lo and behold there was Shadow again with no collar. The little Houdini was an escape artist. 

Shadow kept joining us on our walks each day waiting for us to give him water, food, and his daily treat. We discovered that other neighbors had been doing the same thing and he had been making the rounds in the neighborhood. Although friendly, he was very timid though, and wouldn’t let anyone pet him. When offered his treat, he would approach very cautiously, and would run if we tried to pet him. We figured he might have been abused. 

Weeks later we noticed our neighbors across the street petting him while he still wouldn’t let us do that. But when he visited us, he now had a collar. Our neighbors were able to gain his trust, get close enough to not only pet him, but get a collar on him and take him to the vet. They told us his new name was “Patch” and that he was even sleeping in the house on the bed with them. While he was still allowed to run free for a while, he stilled joined us on walks and followed us home for his treat, but soon his people,started keeping him inside. Which is great because he recognized our car and followed it and ran in front of it and I was afraid he would get hit. Now that he doesn’t roam the street anymore, we miss him, but are so glad he has a loving home, sleeps in my neighbor’s bed, and has a friend in their dog, Whiskey.