Late in the afternoon Friday, July 07, 2006, I was taking a break from work, walking on 44th Street near McDowell Road in Phoenix. A beautiful black dog was running in the street, somehow managing to avoid traffic. My attempts to get her to safety ended in her running in to a paved, fenced, cul-de-sac. What a stroke of luck – her only way out was past me. One of the neighbors brought me a rope, and I sat down on the black-top on a hot summer day, and waited her out. It took about 30 minutes, but she came over, and I was able to put the makeshift leash on her. We went back to my office, finished up, and went home.
The neighbor that brought me the rope explained the situation to me. On June 30, her neighbor moved out, leaving the dog locked in the apartment. Mid-week, a workman kicked her out of the apartment, and she had been running loose around the neighborhood.
When I took her to the vet, they checked for a chip, and found from it that she had been adopted from the Maricopa County Animal Shelter, but the chip had never been registered. When I contacted the shelter, I found out that she had been brought in as a puppy in January, 2015, and they agreed to transfer her to me.
I lost her to cancer in November, 2018. I still think of her every day.