LOST and FOUND

I thought about writing this post right after this incident happened but then it kinda fell to the wayside until something happened to me that reminded me of it again. (I will post about that hopefully tomorrow.)

I came home one evening tired and worn out. The sun was gone but it wasn't completely dark out yet. I walked into the house and let my dogs out into the backyard. I headed back out the front door to get my garbage bin from the sidewalk and wheel it back up the driveway as it had been garbage day that day.
As I walked down my porch steps I saw a dog slowly walking down the sidewalk.
She was alone. I could see that she was a Pitbull so I decided to be a little cautious, just in case.
I stopped and sat down on my steps and softly said "Where are you going?'
She turned and looked at me. She was tired, so I said "Come here honey".
She walked up my front walk and I approached her and rubbed her on the top of her head and her tail started to wag. She had a harness on, so I lead here up and inside my porch and took a leash off of the peg and walked her back down to the sidewalk. We stood there and looked both ways. I was hoping someone was out looking for her and would see us... but no luck.

Finally I walked over to the neighbors. I don't really know why I bothered but I know that they know people around the neighborhood and hoped they would recognize her....Nope!
So I took her back and put her inside my enclosed front porch while I went to get my phone. She wanted to come inside the house but I wouldn't let her. I called Animal Control but of course it was just an answering machine. So I went out and joined her in the porch while I called the non-emergency police number. I told the dispatcher that I wasn't sure who I should be calling but I had found a dog. The woman asked me what breed it was and I told her that is was a Pit. A friendly little Pitbull.

Her response was "Oh MY GOODNESS! Does it have a black harness on!?" I kinda laughed and said "Why YES it does!
Apparently her owner had been looking for her and was very distraught. The dispatcher asked for my name and address and was VERY surprised. She said "Boy! Has SHE travelled!" She had gotten away from the opposite side of town. She lived below the hill, down in the Broadway District where the historical homes are. She had walked at least 2 or more miles. And she was 10 years old. The dispatcher said that I had 2 options. She could send a patrol car for the dog but they were out on calls and it could be a while or she could give the owner my address. She said that the owner was a female, in case I was worried about my safety. I told her it was fine to give her my name and address. So, me and "Mimosa" sat in the porch and waited.
Eventually I saw a van come slowly down the block. I could see her looking at the addresses so we walked down the steps. And young woman, probably in her late twenties got out of the drivers seat and hurried up to us. She had a broken leash in her hand and what looked like an envelope in the other. She tried to tell me how she had been walking her dogs when the leash had broke and Mimosa had ran off. She said she and her other dog and searched everywhere and finally she had returned home to call the police. I could barely make out what she was saying because she was crying and trembling so bad. She told me how her dogs were rescues and that her other one was a Australian Shepherd mix and how she had rescued her little Pitbull a long time ago and how she was elderly and....she was just sobbing. She told me how her Aussie had kept looking at her as if to say "WHERE is she?!"
I told her to STOP or I would start to cry too.
Then she opened her envelope and with trembling hands pulled out a 20 dollar bill. She apologized that she didn't have more and was saying how this dog meant the world to her and for me to please take the money.
I said no. She tried again and I said NO! I didn't need to be paid. I said that my only hope was that if any of my dogs ever got lost, that someone would stop them and call me. She asked me again to take it and I told her that I wanted her to take the money and buy something for her dog.
I'm not a hugging kind of person but she threw her arms around me and I had to give her a hug. She reminded me of one of my nieces and I told her everything was OK, that her dog was fine, that she was fine.
And I tried not to cry because I knew how she felt. How important that her dogs were to her.
I watched her load her old girl up into the  van and I went inside. I thought about that old dog travelling so far across town. She had to have crossed at LEAST 2 very busy streets even if she crossed through neighborhoods, there was no way for her to make it to the opposite side of town without crossing traffic.
I felt sad because no one probably stopped her because she was a Pitbull.
But I was happy that she crossed my path at just the right moment. a couple of minutes either way and I would have never seen her.
But then again, I do believe things happen for a reason.