A runaway big black nose leads to big black nose rescue

On Wednesday afternoon, TJ brought home another big black nose. When he said, "guess who's in the yard," I figured it was Henry, the neighbor's golden retriever. Good guess, as Henry has made himself completely at home in our yard and house since we moved in, but wrong. It was a large, very mixed mix breed big black nose TJ found in the middle of the road on his way home from work. He had no id tags, only part of a chain hanging from his collar as if he had somehow ripped loose from a stake in the ground. After my standard "someone's probably missing him" and TJ's retort "not if they treat him like that," we started the process of locating the Warrensburg Animal Shelter. Arriving was an exercise in perspective. As volunteers at the Rapid City humane society, we thought of endless improvements the staff there should be making. By comparison, the Warrensburg facility makes Rapid City's look like a pampered pooch kennel. Turns out that the runaway was chipped and the staff was able to reach his owners who said they'd be in to pick him up. Of course, we masochistically decided to walk through the kennel area to take a look at all the poor pups in the clink. Two full sized Great Pyreneese caught our attention primarily because we knew from our volunteer time that very large breed dogs typically aren't adopted out of shelters because of their size. When we got home, TJ found a Great Pyr rescue society in MO, but they couldn't help since they were full. However, they referred him to another group in CO. After a few conversations, a rescue plan was in effect. TJ would take the dogs to a kennel near Kansas City that would give the CO group a break on boarding until they could send their van to pick them up. Riley and I stayed home since the pooches took up most of the car space. TJ said that the dogs were filthy and stinky with terrible dirt clots and matted hair and seemed very happy to be out of their small cages. At the kennel, they weighed them both and noted that the "big guy" clocked in at 83 pounds and should weigh closer to 120. There's no doubt these two are headed in a much better direction now. About 3 hours of pick up and travel time, some gas money, and a stinky car ride helped save two lives. Pretty good trade off.