A Saga of a Stray Dog

It's been a while, so I thought I'd add an entry about a recent "adventure" I had with a stray dog and how I think it will affect my writing. As a writer, all events that affect us emotionally ultimately affect our writing.

So, the short version is that, one night during a storm, my stepson let a dog into our garage that was crying and whining next to the garage. My own dog Ringo, who is a social whore, had to meet this wet little stray, so he was whining terribly until I let him into the garage. Since the garage was so hot from the weather, I decided I had to let them both into the living room. This wet, stinking, terrier mutt with matted hair, complete with dirt and feces, was so grateful, with big brown eyes and a constantly wagging tail, that he was ugly adorable. That was it - for a while.

Since it had no dog tag, we took it to our vet and didn't find a transmitter identifier, so we decided to adopt. After hundred of dollars in shots, we took it to Pet Smart and made an appointment to have it trimmed up and shampooed. In the line, a young woman say they thought they recognized the dog, but couldn't be sure. The next day, we took him in and, on the way to pick him up, the original owner brought in the police to Pet Smart! Yikes! But it turned out well, since the owner knew that the dog was not getting great care and essentially let it go to us, complete with a powerful, tearful departure.

This would have been a happy story except for my cat. Terriers are no good with cats, so my poor old cat was being chased throughout the house at all hours. So, after two months, we had to return our sweet stray back to our owners after much anguish and sadness.

So, as a writer, how do you process something like this? I think it depends on our own baggage / perspective. For me, it is a tragic, poignant story, but it does have an uplifting an angle in that I hope the original owners can see how sweet he could be.

 For me, it teaches me the value and pain of compassion and I think that is a good lesson for me to make sure I apply in my own novels.