I have an uncanny ability to attract dogs. It may be that they sense I’m a huge sucker for them, or it may be that because I own three amazing mutts I send out a scent that is pure pawfume (get it). If there is a stray dog out there it will find me.

Yesterday afternoon I was heading out to pick up Miss C from a sleepover and fun night of Middle Tennessee high school football with her best friend. Yes, my baby girl is in high school!

The sky was dark and foreboding and the wind began to pick up at an alarming rate. I was getting in my car and just missing the first raindrops when two gorgeous big dogs bounded into our yard. They were joyful from escape and looked clearly well taken care of and clearly lost. I knew they must have just escaped from someone’s yard. I ran over to them and petted their big furry heads and they both wagged their tails and greeted me with big dog smiles. Yes, dogs smile. You know what I’m talking about. One was a shepherd mix and one was a gorgeous white Pyrenees the size of a small pony.

Frantic, I knew that they would take off and likely get lost or hit by a car if I didn’t figure out a way to corral them. The shepherd mix didn’t have on a collar and I didn’t think the white dog did (later I realized it was just hidden beneath its copious amounts of gorgeous fur.) I ran toward our back gate thinking I could shut them in the back yard temporarily while I figured out what the heck to do. Of course my three dogs would have none of that business. They greeted us with fur standing up and snarls and OH HELL NO vibes. I ran toward my car with the two lost dogs in pursuit and the shepherd began pacing back and forth alongside my vehicle. Obviously he was used to going bye bye. I opened my back door and he  jumped right in like he was my new BFF, Best Furry Friend.

Hey nice lady let me stank up your car with my wet fur. (This boy was seriously sweet…how could I get mad at him being wet?)

Meanwhile it was now pouring down rain and the white dog was running loose in my yard and I was getting drenched. I opened the car door again trying to coax the ginormous white dog into my car. He would have none of it and his friend the shepherd mix leaps out and they both take off across the street and under my neighbor’s carport, sniffing everything with excited dog zeal. I run after them and my sweet neighbors are waving and smile while watching this unfold from their sliding glass door. I’m pretty sure they are smiling, while under their breath they are saying “You crazy dog lady!” I scream something like, “These dogs have to belong to someone! Just trying to put them up somewhere safe until I find their owner!” Shepherd Boy actually runs into their back yard through the open gate. Whitey follows. I mange to shut Whitey up (thankfully the neighbors don’t have dogs to deter them.) Shepherd Boy escapes behind me.

Yes I just shut a strange dog up in my neighbors’ back yard without asking but I was in crisis management mode. Meanwhile, a horrible storm is raging. I call my husband frantically from the neighbor’s carport while I grab on to the scruffy wetness of Shepherd Boy’s neck. Hubby is working and I’m trying to relay to him what’s going on and he says he’ll be there as soon as he can. Then I call my daughter who is on the other side of town waiting for me to pick her up and tell her what’s going on. Then I post a quick pic of Shepherd Boy on to a local lost dog Facebook page. Hell yes I can multi-task in the middle of a raging storm!

Shepherd Boy (who is huge) wiggles away from me and joyfully bounds down the street while all hell is breaking loose with the weather. I run across the street and get in my car to see if I can drive around and spot him. As I’m pulling out of my driveway, I see a man running down the street wearing a garbage bag as a makeshift poncho and yelling. That must be the owner as he and I are the only two idiots out in the severe thunderstorm. I stop the car and jump out, looking like a drowned rat, and yell, “are you looking for two dogs?” Bingo! He is. I point him in the direction of my neighbor’s back yard and explain I have the white dog safely shut up there and he takes off after the Shepherd who is running amuck a few houses over, sniffing away and oblivious to the storm.

All was good, the dogs were reunited with their owner and hopefully the their fence is secure after yesterday’s storm.

When I say it was a bad storm, I’m not kidding. This is damage about a half mile from my house.

I’m dry, my car didn’t really take in much wet dog smell since Shepherd Boy was only in my car about 5 minutes max and I earned a few more crazy dog lady points.