We are caring for a poor, thrown out, Blue Heeler at our house. We call her “Snot” like the dog on the movie Christmas Vacation. I dubbed her that because when she appeared on our front porch she had a bloody gash on the side of her head that looked like she had been kicked by a horse, or a cow, and had gotten the snot knocked out of her. She is still kind of snotty so we still call her Snot.
Wife, Danny, and I feed her because that’s what we do. Somebody has to. We don’t necessarily want to take in another animal, but at the same time we are certainly not going to let one starve on our front porch.
The ideal thing would be for her real momma and daddy to come back and get her and take care of her themselves. Apparently that isn’t going to happen since she has been at our house for over a month now.
I feel certain someone dumped Snot on us because there were fresh tire tracks in our yard the day she appeared, and since she was injured I think they just wanted to get rid of her.
She was obviously taken care of before she came to stay with us. She was healthy — other than that wound — well fed, and had a very friendly disposition. She took up residence on the porch, wagging her tail, and kind of grinning when we walked up as if she had lived either inside or on someone else’s porch.
She also took over the dog bed we kept there during the cold winter days for our other free loader, Henry, also a Blue Heeler, who unfortunately died last week after being hit by a vehicle near his real home.
Henry was a very good porch dog and extremely protective of us — especially me — and the two little Chihuahuas that really do belong to Danny and me. It was a sad day when Henry died and we miss him a lot.
Snot, on the other hand, has healed pretty much from her injuries, and is now living on the back porch most of the time when not lounging in the yard, or chasing one of the stray cats we also care for.
That cat, strangely enough, is black and white and very much resembles a cat we gave, almost 40 years ago, to my late mother- and father-in-law, Bobby Joe and Stewart Harrell, whose house was across the back pasture from our house. The cat we gave them was a Tom and was a double paw. Most cats have five toes on their front paws and four toes on their back paws, double paws, or polydactyl cats, can have six or more on each paw. This cat has seven. I call her Big Feets.
Since Polydactyly is a genetic abnormality I figure Big Feets must be a direct descendant of Mr. Precious Cat — the name of the one we gave the in-laws — Presh, Stewart called him, for short.
Back to Snot. Snot doesn’t like cats, but Snot likes cat food and any other kind of food she can get her choppers on. Unfortunately eating — and eating very quickly — causes her to...well it causes her to live up to her name! If it weren’t for that she would be a good porch dog too.
But good or bad, we really do not need another dog, on the porch or anywhere else. Plus, dog food can be hard to come by these days. I really don’t understand how the pandemic so adversely affected dog food production. Perhaps it is the pet food hoarders, a topic on which we are very versed due to helping my dad keep his two dogs fed over the last two years.
I’m sure Snot misses her real family and wishes they would come get her and welcome her back to their front porch and their dog food bowl. Right now, though, she doesn’t seem to miss them at all. When we drive up she comes running and last week she slid up to me on her belly just like another old pup, another Blue Heeler, that wasn’t ours either, used to do before she had a run-in with the pack of Coyotes that live in the woods across the front pasture. Henrietta was a good porch dog too. Goofy, but good!
So, you all, Snot “is” a good dog, and if she is yours, you know how to get in touch with me here at the paper. I really wish you would. But, then again, since you more than likely threw her out anyway, you already know where she is. By the way, throwing a dog out is a crime.
And, for the record, Danny calls her Momma Dog. I’m the only one that calls her Snot...good ole Snot!
