Getting to know my neighbors

A very unusual thing happened to our family yesterday, which ended up with us making new friends in our extended neighborhood.

To give a bit of background, we have been having a little rat terrier come visit us for a few months. About once a week, he'd come spend a day or two to visit, then leave. This week, though, he had been around for several days. {The children call any small stray dog, Bobo, but for some reason, he responded to that! } So, Bobo has been making himself very comfortable, but at night, stood by the door with his puppy dog eyes, trying to make us let him in (no dice), and our dogs barked off and on all night, just because he was there. Since previously, he would go home after a day or so, and didn't this time, I called the animal shelter number yesterday morning that was on his tag, and gave his code number, and within 15 minutes, I was on the phone with his owner. Well, his owner's grandma. Turns out, his owner moved and left the dog with Grandparents, who live about 3/4ths of a mile from us. His real name is Spots. BUT his owner's granddaughter is named Melanie, and the Grandma calls him Bobo. Coincidence, no?

My DH and DS took Bobo Spots home in the evening. About an hour later, an old man came knocking on our door, so very grateful. He started talking about his garden, how it is over-abundant and that we could come get as much veggies as we want out of it, and he kept talking. So as he was leaving, he handed me his card....wait a minute! That wasn't the name of the person with whom I spoke in the morning! It turns out that he had lost two black pugs, and someone from my street returned them, at the same time my DH was returning Bobo! We figured out who it was, and DH took the man to them. He said we could come get some veggies, anyways!

Then 15 minutes later, another old man knocks on our door! This was the real owner of Bobo. He was on his way home from work and didn't realize that we already returned him. He was telling of how Bobo's companion Chihuahua ran away and never came back and that he was very lonely. He just stayed with us because of our kids and pet menagerie. He recognized a place where animals were welcome! DH told the old man that Bobo could come over any time, and now that we know where he lives, we'll just bring him home in the evening.

How's that for getting to know your neighbors?