Recon

Despite the rain and lack of sun, Tom has acquired a shadow. Since the end of last week, Stout, Beli, and Nock would occasionally jump up when we were all in the dining room and run barking onto the porch. Then, two days ago, Tom saw a smallish blond dog in front of the guest cabin when he went out to open up, and Selwyn saw the dog in the pasture. Yesterday, the dog was always somewhere within sight, just keeping an eye on us. Late in the afternoon Tom wanted to get a look at it, so we took out a piece of ham, but it wouldn’t come until we put the ham on a stump and walked away. Then, I gave the dog a bowl of food when I fed last night, although it still wouldn’t come anywhere near us. Finally, this morning, as Tom was doing his morning rounds and opening things up, he realized that the dog was following him. He sat down on the porch at the shop, and she shyly approached so Tom could pet her. Before he knew it, he said, she was on her back in his lap getting her tummy rubbed, and it’s now 2:30PM and she hasn’t left his side except when he’s in the house, and then she’s either on the step or, if it’s raining, under the house and waiting for him to come back out.

We haven’t seen her around before, and Selwyn says he doesn’t recognize her. She’s in remarkably good shape for a stray potlicker, fairly clean with some decent weight on her, and although she’s far from spotless, seems to have a few fleas, and she could still use a couple of pounds, she’s a far cry from the walking parasite infested dog skeletons we see not only as strays, but also in people’s yards around here. She’s also very sweet and friendly, and would rather be rubbed than eat, so she doesn’t appear to have been neglected or abused. Her neck is rubbed where she must have been wearing a collar, but she doesn’t have a collar now. We don’t know if she broke loose, ran away, and ended up here, or if somebody dumped her, and it’s a mystery because she certainly isn’t showing any inclination to run away from here.

We have no idea what we’ll do with her. If she sticks around and doesn’t mind being an outside dog, it’s fine if she stays here. She’s already met Mel when he’s doing his perambulating, and he seems to like her. She’s making the puppies and the Jack Russells crazy because they’re not where she is, but that will get better if we decide she’s staying and introduce them. Right now, we’re going to give it a couple of days and see what happens and if it seems like she’ll be around for a while, we’ll have a vet look over her and give her whatever shots she needs so she won’t give our dogs anything. And, of course, since she’s a she, if she stays we’ll have to see about spaying her, but we’ll make sure nobody is going to come looking for her before that.

The really funny thing about this to me, which is both haha funny and odd funny, is that Tom seems to like having a shadow, and he’s the one making the plans for what we’ll do with her if she stays. He’s even named her – Recon, because before she approached him, he told me that she was doing reconnaissance on him, although he’s not sure how to pronounce the name. If he uses the English version, it would be Ree-con, but if it’s Spanish, it's Ray-Cone. Always some dilemma… We’ll keep you posted on whether or not Moonracer Farm has acquired another misfit!