A True Story About a Border Collie, A Very Lucky Dog

One day after a very long and hot summer day at work, I came out to go home and because of the over one hundred degree temperature I had left my car windows down in my Honda Accord. I opened the drivers door, and sitting in the drivers seat behind the steering wheel, was a dog, and tri colored border collie. He had apparently jumped through the window into the car, I figured either because he was confused and lived nearby, or was one of those dogs who just loved to go bye,bye, no matter who's car they got into.

He had a collar on, and I looked at it, and there were tags that siad he had had all his shots, but nothing with is name, his owners name, or an address or phone number. Not one piece of information that would tell anyone where he lived or who he belonged to.

The area that I worked and lived in was a very small community that had one gas station, a couple of stores, a livestock feed store, and quite a few people who were all animal lovers, a lot of horse people, 4H'ers. I thought, well, he has to belong to one of these places around here. I reached in to grab his collar and encourage him to get out of my car. I wanted to go home. When I did this, and told him to get out, he jumped over into the passenger seat and very quietly growled at me.

"Oh Great, this is what I need, a dog that won't get out of my car.", and I got just a little bit angry at the problem, for I had worked a good ten hours, and was tired. I walked around to the passenger side, opened the door, and again told him "Out boy, get out". The dog could not have looked more disinterested. I was quite sure he understood me, but just refused to obey.

Well, I would just have to take him around with me tomorrow, on my day off, for I was planning to go horseback riding. I would find out where he lived.

As long as I did not try to remove him from the car, he did not growl, so off we went home. When I pulled into the driveway, I stopped off at the horse corral, threw the horses some hay, and out he jumped as if he knew where we were.

The next day I got up early and threw a saddle up on my horse, and went to every other house, stopping and asking if anyone knew where this dog lived. I thought if I went to every other house, a neighbor would surely know if the dog belonged next door and it would save time. There was no time saved, for nobody in the whole community seemed to know where this dog had come from.

Well, it looked like I had a dog, for he followed me from room t room, loved my kids, loved the other animals we had, and didn't even bother the chickens, except to herd them into the coop from time to time. Looked like I was either stuck with him or he would have to go to the pound. I was vetoed about the pound by my boys. I had a dog.

What was I going to call him? I finally told the kids it had to be Lucky, for he was surely Lucky he got into my car not someone elses.

So for the next three weeks, Lucky Dog did not let me out of his sight. If I went to the store, he was outside when I came out, and if I did not take him to work with me, he would be outside work, or again in the burning hot car when I came out.

Then, it happened. Almost one month after he came home with me, a man in a white welding truck came pulling up into my yard, slamming on his brakes and making a cloud of dust as he slid to a stop behind my car.

"There you are you miserable no good piece of crap dog!!" and with that he picked the dog up one hand grabbing his collar, the other a handful of fur at his rump and slung the dog into the back of his truck. With this he said, "I'll tie you so you won't ever get off that chain again, never!!" he screamed. The dog cowered in the back of the truck, and I felt really bad for him. I stopped the man long enough to let him know I didn't approve of his treatment, and just got another tirade of cuss words, letting me know that he was fit to be tied with this animal running away. He also showed me his paperwork, for he was indeed a papered AKC Border Collie, and the man had paid a goodly $500 for him.

With this, he left, speeding out of the drive, not even stopping at the street. At the next corner was a stop sign, which he did stop at, and after that I could only hear his truck revving up the street and out of range.

It had not been more than one to two minutes, and the dog was back, panting and barking at me happily. "Oh boy, are you ever going to get it". Apparently when the guy stopped at the sign, the dog jumped silently out at the first corner past my house and was back lickety-split.

I did not know what would happen after this. I went to work the next day, and the dog did the same thing he did, and the man did not come back.

He did not come back for at least another two weeks. And so it went for about six or eight months. About every two or three weeks, the man would come, slam the dog angrily into his truck, and the dog would return, either right away, or however ong it took him to escape from his former owners.

Now the peculiar thing about this was that I never did find out where the man lived, for he did not want to tell me for he seemed to think that I was somehow stealing his dog away. Occasionally, we would run into one another at the store on the corner, for it was a small community. At these times he would approach me and say, "Why are you stealing my dog "Gizmo". By this time, I had had about enough of this guys b.s. and I would return to him with, "that isn't your dog gizmo, that is my dog, 'Lucky dog'. With this he would always want to prove this one way or another, and we would do so by him telling the dog, "gizmo, get into the truck", Then I would say "Lucky Dog get in" and the dog would jump into my car through the window, even if he had to squeeze through a partially closed window. Sometimes the dog would be waiting for the cue and all I had to do was snap my fingers at him and he would sail into the car.

The man got angrier and angrier. One day he told me he was going to call the police and have me arrested for stealing his dog. At that I returned, "Go ahead, and I will tell them you cannot keep your dog out of my yard and you owe me for six months worth of dog food.

   My landlord came one day, and knocked at my door, and asked me if it were OK for a friend of his to store a small trailer, near the front of the property.

   I agreed, not seeing the harm in it.  That weekend the man with the trailer was there fixing it up for he was taking it somewhere.  There, with him was a dog that looked just like my Lucky Dog.  While I was down caring for the horses he came over and started talking to me about Lucky.  As it were, his dog, a female, was in heat, and he wanted Lucky to be a dad.  Well I explained to him that it wasn't my dog, and beside that, he had rather irritated me because he had not told me his dog was in heat until long after Lucky had been let outside, trying to get them to breed for free.

   I told him no, and took Lucky inside.  The next morning, the trailer was gone from the front of the property, and to my dismay, Lucky Dog was also no where to be found.  I called my landlord, and he said that his friend had left to go to Arizona, and that he was sure he wouldn't have taken my dog for he was a fine christian man.  Well, the day ended, and Lucky did not come back.  In fact, the week, then the month was over, and still no sign of Lucky Dog;  I was heartbroken that I had allowed that man to kidnap this dog from me.

   Then about three and one half weeks after he had been taken, there was a scratch at my front door.

   I answered the door, and there stood my Lucky Dog.  He looked horrible.  He was dirty, thin, and his feet were bleeding.  When he saw me he howled and jumped all over me.  Apparently, the dog had escaped and came all the way back from Arizona, a good 600-700 miles from my house.  He was a mess, he was hungry, but he sure was glad to be home

   The second half of this story will come out as another hub very soon