Your Family - April 2017

DAD’S WORLD

120 yourfamily.co.za

IMAGE: FOTOLIA.COM

GUS SILBER DISCOVERS HOW

EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY, EVEN IF

IT GETS LOST ALONG THE WAY!

W

e thought at first that it might have been a cat,

slinking into the undergrowth with a flash of

tawny fur. But a glance in the side view revealed

a less lissom creature, trudging along the

pavement, looking lost. We backed up. It wasn’t a cat.

From its fox-like ears, prominent eyes, and compact

frame, we deduced that it was probably a Chihuahua...

a small Mexican lapdog. Which was desperately, it seemed,

in need of a lap.

With the car idling on the corner, we were faced with two

options. Drive on, and leave the dog to its own devices on

the edge of a busy road; or drive on faster, and leave it to

somebody else’s devices.

But then it looked up at us, with its big brown chocolate

eyes, and, oh well.

It lay on the back seat, with its head on its paws, listless

and forlorn, while we went from door to door, ringing

doorbells. This being Joburg, however, where doorbells

serve a strictly decorative purpose, nobody was at

home. Except for the dog, which, shortly, was at ours, albeit

only – as per our strict understanding – for social media

publicity purposes.

‘Here doggie, doggie!’ I called, pointing my phone at the

dog as it sat in the courtyard, with the cats looking on in

disdain, and Pinky, our own once-abandoned mutt, peering

nervously from underneath my desk. I posted the picture to

our neighbourhood WhatsApp group, just in case anyone

happened to be looking for a small female dog found

wandering up the road without a collar. Nobody replied.

Except for Amanda, who, grabbing my phone, said, ‘You

can see our washing line in the background! And everything

on it! I’m so embarrassed!’

But there was a more pressing matter at hand, which

was, what are we going to do about this poor little dog? So,

we posted a picture to Facebook as well, and we called the

SPCA with a description, for which there was no match. By

now Max had come home from the mall. He took one look at

the dog and laughed, ‘What’s that?’ In a flash of inspiration,

he tapped away on his phone and posted, to the family

WhatsApp group, a portrait of a goofy-looking, bug-eyed

character from the movie, Ice Age. There was a resemblance.

Our refugee, despite the heat of the day, was shivering

quietly in her appropriated cat’s basket, and my expert

diagnosis, based on the dryness of her nose, was that she

needed to see a vet. I was right.

He scanned her for a microchip – sorry, none – and

agreed to keep her for observation overnight. Then, the next

morning, came the news: emergency surgery for a fearsome

internal infection. Which, speculated the vet, may have been

the reason she had been dumped.

The moral of this tale may have been, some people don’t

deserve to have dogs; instead, it is some people do, because

a kindly neighbour who saw the WhatsApp offered to take

her in and look after her until a loving home can be found.

I went to visit the patient at the vet, and this time she was

standing up in her cage, wagging her tail, bright-eyed and

yapping. Whatever her name may once have been, I think

she should be called Lucky.

A happy