Tonight, there was a puppy roaming around the parking lot at work. I found out about the dog because it trotted across the parking lot to greet me as I was about to hop in my car to go home. The dog was a beagle, female, and probably about six months old. She was a beautiful dog and didn't seem to be hurt, thank goodness, and seemed to be well fed and pretty healthy. Just a little scared and a little cold--the temperature has hovering around the freezing mark when I first tried to get to my car.
I realized that I couldn't take the dog home with me (though I *did* think about it briefly) since the dog had a collar with a couple of phone numbers on it. And I didn't have my cellphone with me; I had foolishly forgotten it on the charger when I left for work. Also given how cold it was, I wanted to get the dog to someplace warm. So I figured if I could get the dog into the lobby of the warehouse, I could get security involved, they could make the call, owner reunites with dog, music swells, happily ever after. You know.
I get the dog up into the lobby easily enough; she seemed rather well trained and was more than happy to follow when she figured out I was going someplace *warm*. So with that accomplished, I call the security desk which is inside the warehouse. One of the nighttime security folks comes out and ushers the dog back outside while lightly admonishing me, saying that I couldn't bring animals in *here*. His tone told me that while he didn't want to put the dog out in the cold, rules were rules.
While this is happening, the next shift to get out started to pile out, and I spent the next five minutes after the dog was booted watching her follow one person after another, occasionally stopping her from getting out past the first set of cars. I've noticed that the workplace is a whole lot like high school in that there are a whole lot of cars there that can go from 0 to 60 in the parking lot. So the last thing I wanted to happen was for the dog to go splut under the wheels of a Midnight Screamer.
I also noticed that there aren't that many dog people where I work. At least, not many that wanted anything to do with *that* dog. Some of them were fearful and kept their distance (One even asked me "Does it bite?" As far as I know, no, but do you want to find out?). Others petted the dog and asked if she was my dog then where she was found, but left soon afterwards. Then there were those that tried to ignore the dog altogether, walking briskly to their car as the dog trotted behind them (at least as far as I would let it). I would've, and maybe should've, gotten angry with their "not my problem" attitude, but I realized that this probably would've been me if I had left not fifteen minutes before I did.
I finally did get some help from one of my co-workers, part of the third shift crew, who called the numbers while I watched the dog. The owner was at the second number (the first was disconnected) and though it took 30 minutes for him to get there, he was able to get over to the warehouse to pick up the dog. For our part, we led the dog to the co-worker's truck, where he had blankets and t-shirts for the dog to snuggle in while we waited.
There was a sad part to the happy reunion; the owner told us that he had *two* dogs go missing. The other one was (and still is, for all I know) still unaccounted for. Seeing that there was nothing else I could do, I left. Of course I peeked along the sides of the road as I drove, heart sinking, looking for the roadkill I knew had to be there.
Thankfully, there wasn't any.