Bow-Wow, Where Art Thou?

Yesterday, a very shocking event occurred. Farley jumped out the window and ran away.

As you can see, Farley is a frightful rascal. But I am no different than any other girl. I always like the bad boys.

It was terribly frightening to discover that Farley had absconded. I was very close behind him, however, so I felt I had a good chance of finding him quickly.

Thirty minutes later, my hopes were dimming. I imagined the worst. Where could he be? My neighborhood is fairly self-contained, but it has a lot of curving streets and back alleys. Farley is a small dog, so he could be in just about any nook or cranny.

Farley is very friendly with people so I wasn’t worried about him taking a little nibble out of any passersby. But, unfortunately, he does have an enormous Napoleon complex; he has never come to terms with his poodle half. He sees a big dog, and he’s ready to rumble. With me by his side to bring him to his senses, this is usually not much of an issue, since he is small and easy to control. Heck, I can pick him right up if I need to. But out on his own, in a neighborhood filled with large dogs, I shuddered to think what could happen.

As I searched and searched, this especially preyed on my mind. Also it was starting to get very hot. On the one hand, this was bad for Farley (because he would be hot), but on the other hand, it was getting to be the time of day when people weren’t walking their dogs. So, no big dogs to bring out the lion in Farley. But I did encounter lots of recreational walkers as I drove around. Though I asked every one of them, none had spotted my little runaway. But, seeing all those walkers did give me some hope.

The reason I felt hopeful was because, of course, Farley has a tag with all his identifying information on it. So maybe one of these recreational walkers would spot Farley, know that I was searching for him and give me a call. So what, you say? Well you would not BELIEVE how many dogs don’t have this simple little thing that can save them so much grief. As a dog lover, I try to help just about every stray that crosses my path if I can. Many, many times they do not have tags. I have been very lucky with posting “Found” signs and knocking on doors, but how much easier for all involved if the poor pooch just had a little ol’ name tag.

Maybe some dogs don’t have tags because of the expense. Well, I am here to help you with that, if that is the case with your tagless pooch. I know tags can be expensive; at PetCo ID tags are $7.00 and $9.00. This seems quite outrageous for a little bit of (cheap) engraved metal. But considering the alternative, it was worth it to me.

However, if you move frequently, as we seem to do (oh, yes, we are moving this summer), this can get to be quite an expense. It’s so important to keep this info updated from day one of a move. I’ve noticed that dogs especially like to do rascally things, like run away, when you’re majorly distracted on moving day (or when you’re on the phone). So here are a couple of suggestions.

First, feed your pooch Milk Bone Dog Bones as treats. Yep, that’s right. They love ‘em. And guess what? Milk Bone has a great offer -a free ID tag with 2 UPCs. So that means you would have to buy 2 boxes of Milk Bone Dog Bones to get a free tag. But I will be honest with you, they aren’t really free. You have to send $1.95 shipping and handling for each tag. But I think that this is very fair, and a great thing that Milk Bone does for the world of Dogdom.

I have used these tags before, and I like them better than the ones I get at pet stores. The information is very clearly engraved and legible, not all crammed together like the pet store offerings. Since I have known for quite some time that we would be moving, I have been diligently saving my Milk Bone UPC’s against the evil day thereof (when we move). (Oh, I’m happy about my new house, but I HATE moving).

It has taken me about 6 months to buy 16 boxes and save 8 UPCs for four ID Tags (I have a cat, too, but her ID tag is so tiny it can only accommodate her name and a cell phone number, which doesn’t change. Plus, she never goes outside). Milk Bone Dog Bones are not that expensive to begin with, and you can always find them on sale, or coupons for them.

The other Frugal approach to this problem occurred to me because, though many strays I find do not have tags, they almost always have collars. So, the cheapest and easiest thing to do (though admittedly, not the prettiest) is to simply take a good, fat Sharpie and write your pooch’s name right on his or her collar. Don’t forget the phone number, and address if it fits. You could also write the address on the inside of the collar, with something like “Look Inside” on the front to catch people’s attention. You could also do this with a label maker, or some paper and scotch (or packing) tape. I’m not sure how long this would last, but at least it’s SOMETHING and, thus, worth a try.

So, anyway, back to that rascal Farley. After driving around and around for quite some time I was really, really getting scared. I was preparing to make another go around, passing right in front of my house, and there he was! He was sauntering across the street, tail wagging, and looking right at my house. Very casual, the rapscallion. He knew exactly where he was headed, and probably knew precisely where he was the entire time (we walk together everyday, so I guess that has made him pretty familiar with the neighborhood). He probably only came home, finally, because he was hot and thirsty.

I threw the car in park (Yikes! Poor transmission!), leapt out of the car, and screeched, “FARLEY!”. I was so happy to see him, though, that I couldn’t be mad at all. Instead, I fed him a handful of Milk Bone Dog Bones, and called it a day.