Expired Dog Tag Luckily Gets Stray Dog Home

G’day Mates! Next to not having any identification tag or dog license on your dog, having outdated tags is another aggravating factor that helps prohibit prompt reunion of dog with owners. Even if the average person ends up finding stray dogs and is curious and checks for tags, a dog without contact info is easily overlooked (“Sorry, pal. Don’t know where you live.”).

Not Doggy Dundee, though. I was getting out of my car at the local market when I noticed a large, furry beast of a stray dog wandering towards the outdoor grill area, his snout sniffing the air happily (“Yum…I smell chicken and ribs!”). Store employees didn’t know who the owner of the lost dog might be (though said it had been a rare visitor – meaning stray on prior occasion). The ID was useless – meaning NO ID tag and the county dog license had expired two years before. So much for my shopping! I easily enticed the stray sweetheart into my car and headed off to the Jackson County Animal Shelter in Phoenix, Oregon, arriving five minutes after closing time.

However, staff passed along the expired contact info that was still stored in their database (Dog named “Mako”), and I crossed my fingers that the expired contact address was still good; Meaning, I hauled the stray dog and myself back to Talent and began driving around town, asking passersby if they’d heard of the street. We arrived at the house just the owner arrived from work and was pulling into her driveway . I opened the car, the no-longer stray dog leaped out, and the owner tossed me that all too familiar sheepish grin and line Doggy Dundee has come to get-and not believe-from dog owners far too often: “Gee, he’s never gotten out before. It must have been the kids.”) Yeah, right, mate!