Payton the Beagle

While Achilles and I were out for our morning walk today, a little beagle came running over to us from across the street. She looked lost, so I checked her tags and found her name and phone number, ran back inside to get my phone, and called the number. No one answered, so I left a voice mail and then tried to keep an eye on little Payton while finishing up Achilles's walk.

Finally took Achilles back inside and went back out with his leash to try to catch Payton. Thankfully caught up with her and took her home. Still no return call from her owner, so I checked her rabies tag and called the phone number of her vet's office and asked them to try to contact the owner, as well. Then we waited.

Achilles was freaking out about having another dog in the house, barking at the top of his lungs and occasionally snapping at poor Payton. I kept Payton on the leash so that he couldn't chase her through the house and so that she couldn't chase the cats, who were all hiding except for Punkin, who is scared of nothing and came right up to Payton to check her out. It was quite a scene. Payton alternated between sitting in my lap while giving me kisses and straining at the leash because she wanted to explore the house.

I was getting worried because I had to get to my vet's office before noon to pick up a prescription for one of my kittehs, and I still hadn't heard from Payton's owner. So we hung out in the living room for about an hour and Achilles settled down a bit and stopped barking, but kept a vigilant eye on Payton, who was tiring of being on the leash and was starting to whine.

Suddenly, I heard a woman's voice coming from outside, yelling, "PAYTON! PAYTON!" Payton's ears perked up and she started scrambling around. Just as I was about to open the front door, there was a loud knock and a woman's voice yelling, "Did you find a little beagle?" I opened the door and when the woman saw Payton on the leash, she hugged me and started sobbing with joy. It was so sweet. Payton went nuts and started jumping all over her mama.

Apparently one of the neighbors had seen me rescuing Payton and pointed her mama to my house when they saw her out calling for her baby. So, yay! Payton's mama thanked me profusely. She was just visiting a friend in the neighborhood and Payton had managed to get out of the friend's back yard. Since it wasn't her neighborhood, she could have gotten really and truly lost if I hadn't taken her inside. I'm so happy that I was able to get her reunited with her mama. And I still managed to get to the vet's and pick up Niko's prescription before they closed. I love a happy ending!