The dog

Last Sunday Mike and I were out for a morning bike ride, the air was warm (in this case probably 50 degrees) and we were trolling the downtown looking for an apartment for him next year.

I saw a brown dog bolt from someone's backyard and run around aimlessly but fast.

My thought process:

Ok that dog must be lost or a runaway, I should catch it.
It might have rabies.
It doesn't look rabid.
Its probably a neighborhood dog, this is normal.

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I decided to leave it alone, trying to convince myself that it was just a neighborhood dog, and continued on.

The next block over, we were looking at a for rent sign, when the brown dog bolted out from some bushes and practically into my hands. He was really quite nice and tame, and had a collar but no tags. His ribs were showing through his skin, but he just stood patiently with me.
I thought, well this is a really tame dog, I bet this is just a neighborhood dog still and I let go of his collar for a split second to see if he would stay.

I was so wrong, the dog bolted, I instantly knew then he was a runaway and biked after him. We cornered him into a back yard and I caught him again.
Then...I mean what do you do when you catch a dog..on a sunday?

I sent Mike home for the bike rack/car and asked everyone who walked/drove by if they had seen the dog before.

I must have waited there 15/20 minutes trying to figure out what to do, when the owner pulled up in a van. She thanked me for catching her dog, he was just adopted from the Humane Society 2 weeks ago.

So...I felt pretty good about this, although I let that dog get away from me twice. I'm glad he's safe.

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Now there's another animal dilemma. There's a cat lady that lives a few houses down from me, there are always many cats all over the yard/ the glass in her windows is broken/ the garage is always open and just crap all over the yard. This morning ( on another bike ride) there was a cat, who looked extremely sad and broken walking as if it could barely pick itself up. It broke my heart, but I don't know who to call.

I have way too much human/animal empathy. Its so difficult for me to deal with homeless people/animals.

ramble ramble