Rebel The call came through on my way home from work. My husband David had come across an abandoned, thin, dirty, joyful (albeit timid) dog. I pulled up behind him on the side of the road and immediately couldn't take my eyes off this gawky adolescent hound. As I got closer to the dog he laid down on his belly and began to crawl towards me obviously with some fear, but what didn't escape me was that although he had every right to be afraid, his tail never stopped wagging. He happily aloud me to pet him and was eager to be as close to me as possible, but the second I touched his neck he leapt away. As I was playing with him and trying to gain his trust, David was going to the neighbors asking them if they knew who this dog was. He started hearing a reoccurring theme, that many people were seen to simply dump or drop their dogs off on the side of the road here when they no longer wanted them. When I heard this shocking news my heart broke for this skinny bedraggled hound who seemed to always have a sort of ironic smile on his face. We both knew at that moment we would take him home and do what we could for him. Together David and I worked to get him in the car. He was excited to get attention from us and ran back and forth between us seeming unable to choose who he wanted affection from more. We tried everything to get him into either of our vehicles. We found one of our dog leashes in the back of David's car and tried without success to get it on him. He had no collar so we tried to loop it around his neck like a lasso, but again he was to quick for me. Not only would he bounce away when we tried to put a leash on him, but he wouldn't get in the car. Our house was a few miles away so we decided to go home get some tempting treats for him and see if we couldn't get him to rethink his staunch position on no leashes and no cars. David and I hopped into his Honda eager to try our new plan. We gingerly pulled away from the dog as he excitedly circled our vehicle seemingly asking us to get out and play with him more. As we pulled away he stopped and looked puzzled tilting his head to the side. My heart felt a pang for him wondering if he felt as though we were leaving him just as his owners had done. We almost turned around, but as I opened my mouth to say something he began to run after us. We stopped the car hoping he would jump in with us, I got out of the passenger seat trying to convince him it was safe, but once again he bounced away. I tried for a few more minutes, but decided it was more dangerous to try to get him in the car on the road. I returned to the passenger seat and we drove on and once again he raced after us. This time I told David to keep going. There we were on our back country road hugging the shoulder driving well below the 25mph speed limit with my head out the window watching our new companion valiantly keep up with us determined not to lose us. He made it home. Two and a half miles he never faltered following right to our driveway. I got out of the car shocked with a heart full of emotion for this loving courageous dog. He was to timid to jump up on me, but he leaned his thin body against mine and his tail beat a rhythm of happiness.
