Little Molly, A Dog Made of Love

I’ve written many times about the way my car seems to attract animals. At all times, I keep in my glovebox a leash and a small can of wet cat food (this smells good to all kinds of animals).

Driving home on Saturday, I turned onto our street and saw a woman letting two small dogs run around in the middle of the street. I rolled down my window so I could tell her they were cute with a “get your dogs out of the street” passive-aggressive tone of voice when she cried “They aren’t mine! I don’t know how to catch dogs!”

So I pulled over. One, a little terrier/dachshund mix was super friendly and came right to me. Her little friend who looked like she could have been her daughter was not so friendly. That little one seemed feral, as if she’d never been approached by a human.

While cuddling the warm little girl who was filthy and matted and covered with fleas and road grease, I debated with myself. My neighbor said they’d been living in a pile of clothes near her house for at least a week, eating the cat food she left outside for her outdoor cats. Both dogs had had puppies at some point recently. The cuddly pup in my arms didn’t seem to be lactating anymore, but the one still running in the street looked full of milk.

What the hell was I supposed to do? In all my animal-finding years, this dilemma has never occurred. If I rescued the one in my arms, that meant the one running terrified would be left all alone in the world.

It might sound dumb that this was distressing to me, but to be honest I’m still really upset about it.

But if I let the sweet girl in my arms go, she’d be running on busy city streets. One of them would certainly get hit by a car, and probably soon.

So I separated them. I felt like Doggy ICE.

The pup who we’re calling Little Molly, is being fostered by my sister Bethany, who recently lost her own dog.

Little Molly is even sweeter now that she’s clean and good smelling. She’s 11 pounds and full-grown, probably about two years old, and has probably had two litters already (THAT OR SHE’S PREGNANT – the vet tech couldn’t tell when Bethany got the chip scanned, and we’re waiting to be scheduled for a full vet visit).

Her ears are soft, and her manner is 100% affection. Bethany has been working with a local rescue society, who has said that she’s totally adoptable because of her adorability — we just have to wait the city mandated two-weeks days to allow the owner to claim her.

That ain’t gonna happen, and we all know it.

A responsible owner wouldn’t have let this happen. A responsible owner would have microchipped her (which is law). At the very least, if she was beloved by someone who couldn’t afford to chip her, she would’ve had a tag. There would’ve been signs looking for her; there would’ve been a flyer at Animal Services.

No one’s looking for these dogs, and that breaks my heart.

It also breaks my heart that I couldn’t catch the other little pup, the younger one. I searched the area for puppies and found none. Whenever I took a step toward the feral mother, she ran, sometimes right into traffic. I never got closer than half a block to her, and I was causing more danger to her by trying to catch her. Animal Services in this town is too busy to pick up live dogs who aren’t a threat, so I’ve just been leaving food where she’s been seen. But I haven’t seen her in two days now.

It makes me crazy, y’all. Just half a block away is where one night, I saw a tiny black kitten run across the road and under a car. I stopped and crawled halfway under the chassis and pulled the wee thing out of the wheel well. That kitten, Crowley, is now my friend Martha’s favorite being in the universe. That one tiny animal has made all the difference in her life.

That little mama running the streets deserves a good home like Crowley, like Little Molly will soon inevitably have.

One loose dog is a seriously trivial thing in a world full of bad shit. I know that.

But still.

At least Little Molly will change someone’s life, and we got to help with that.

(Hit me up if you’re interested! She’s house-trained and a total love. Her main problem that we’ve seen is that she IS a total love. She wants to be a purse dog and touching you at all times. This is a dog for a person who wants to be adored ALL THE TIME without a break. She has separation anxiety which will ease with time and security, but she has a loud whine (no barks have been heard) so she’d make a better house dog than an apartment one. She got along fine with my Dozy. She doesn’t like to cross streets (for obvious reasons, I think). Pass it on!)