The Puppy Who Came In From The Cold

Catherine thought she heard something squealing, but I didn't, so I didn't investigate.  We were just about to sit down to dinner and on my way to the dining room, I could hear Tilly barking and barking.  It was her excited bark, the one she does when she wants someone or something to play with her.  I put down my plate, pulled back the curtain and peered out the window.  I could see Tilly with her head stuck under a table and her tail wagging and lots of excited barks going on.  Further investigation definitely needed.  This could be anything from a snake or lizard, baby rabbit, bird, possum or some other such creature.  So out the back door and onto the verandah.

Imagine my absolute surprise to see a very small puppy whimpering and looking very scared under the table.  I scooped it up and proceeded to bring it inside.  "Catherine, look what I found outside!!!"  It looked like a border collie pup about 6 to 8 weeks but probably closer to 6 than 8.  Considering we are a very long walk from other houses etc., we had no idea where this little one had come from.  I gave it some water which it ignored, so then fetched a saucer of milk which it finished in no time.  And then lay down and started to nod off.  After we finished dinner I rang round the closest neighbours but noone had any idea where it had come from.  One neighbour suggested it might be a dingo pup because she had a splash of white on her tail.  But this puppy was quite friendly and came when you tapped the floor and definitely didn't seem like she'd been bred in the wild.  So nothing we could do that night, we tucked her up in a box in the bathroom to keep her away from Tilly who we knew would just terrorise her wanting to play a game or some such thing.  The next day there were no messes in the bathroom.  She finished off a hearty meal and we took her outside where she did her business.   

She was sooooo cute.  A little blue and white border collie - or what we thought was a border collie.  I headed off to the post office to put up a "Found a Puppy" sign.  On my way down the road, I could see a man walking down the road appearing to look under houses etc.  So I drove up to him and said have you lost a puppy.  Of course he had, so within no time puppy and owner were reunited.  He took her home to mummy and daddy border collie and her two siblings.  Do pups have siblings.  We were very sad to see her go as she had been perfectly behaved and no trouble at all.  Her owner said she was about 7 weeks old.  She had walked about 500 metres to our house through very long grass.  She could never have climbed up onto the verandah.  That must have been the squealing we heard.  We think Tilly must have grabbed her with her mouth and placed her on the verandah to have a game.