Home Alone

The house across the street from me was vacant for a long time. The bank took it back and eventually they fixed it up. Over the summer some people looked like they had started living there - I think. I saw them almost every day but I never saw them actually move in. I mean, I never saw a truck pull up and unload furniture. During the hurricanes they took no precautions at all to protect the house. None. That was strange because after the first one everybody boarded up. Some people are still boarded up to this day!

After the last hurricane I saw a couple of ladies cleaning up debris from the property and creating a pile at the road. I was doing the same and said hello. They seemed nice enough. The house received no damage from the storms and they were just cleaning up broken branches. After the hurricanes I didn't see them often but there were signs of life at the house, they even put out a Bush for president sign. All this time I never once saw any sign of a dog anywhere near that house. Never. I'm home all day and outside very often because James loves to be outside, so if a truck pulled up or if there was a dog I would notice.

Now I'm coming to the point of this post. About a 4 or 5 days ago I noticed a dog on the front porch. It was just laying there and it was there all day. I never saw the dog before. It was not tied up and it would walk around a bit but mostly it stayed on the porch. It's a medium sized dog, tan and looks to be part pit bull. It has that head shape.

The next day it was still there. James noticed it and I made sure to warn him about going near the street. The dog wasn't being aggressive but you never know. I put out the garbage Monday morning and when I turned around I saw it walking across the street towards me. I turned to face it and it cowered and walked back to the neighbors property. Later that night I saw our spot lights turn on in the driveway and looked out to see the dog near our front porch. I opened the door and it ran back to the other house. Now I was starting to get worried about this dog. No one has been around that house for days now. What was it eating? Who's was it? Why was it staying in front of that house?

It was there the next day too. I kept expecting someone to come home to it but no. I decided I would call animal control if it was still there Wednesday. Guess what, it was still there. I called animal control and told them the situation. They sent someone out within the hour. I walked over to talk to the guy and let him know what I knew. We noticed the dog had been chewing on the wood around the front door and porch, like he was trying to get in. It was a mess. When the truck pulled up the dog initially walked towards it in anticipation but when the guy got out it walked away. He couldn't get near it. It eventually ran down the street. Nobody was home, like I thought and he left a notice on the door. He also asked if he could set a trap on my property and I told him no problem.

He drove the truck down the road to find the dog and I saw it go under the fence and run across the pasture. Next thing I know it popped up at the house again. I told him where it was and drove off to pick up Joshua. It was still there when I got home and it was there when I left for work. And no one is home. I took a picture of the dog and I will post it when I get home. I can't help wondering why it is so determined to stay on that porch? Why does it want to get in the house? I never saw it before, could it have been there all along and I never saw it, perhaps they kept it out back? Did they move away and just leave the dog? Or maybe the owner is inside and passed away? There is no car out front. I hope I can find out what's going on and I hope the dog gets the help it needs.