pep Gets Lucky

After returning from San Luis Obispo on Sunday, I spent some quality time pulling weeds in my backyard. You know the old saying "All play and no work ..." Or is that the other way around? Being a good little multi-tasker, I talked with my family on the other coast as I uprooted oxalis and burclover. Which meant that I happened to have my phone in my pocket when a nervous yellow lab appeared in my neighbor's driveway.

A lost pet is a heartbreaking thing. Sure enough, this one is a wanderer. I'm really not a dog person, is he menacing? He wags his tail and bounds over to me as soon as I call him. He's friendly, with a collar and tags ... I can help ... my neighbors step outside with some guests, and he bolts.

Thank goodness he's had some training. He comes back when I call him, and this time I get a grip on his collar. Sit. Good dog. Petting him as I fumble for his tags, he immediately drops and rolls onto his back for a belly rub, squirming with delight, and starts licking me enthusiastically. Having read Marley & Me, I smile at this goofy lost lab. Lucky, I see, is his name.

I call the first number on his tag. "Hi, I have your dog. Yellow lab?" An open gate. Where's Lucky?! "No problem, I've got him." Lucky is soon reunited with a beaming ten-year-old boy.

A happy ending, but pretty tame in comparison to the rescue one of my biking friends had shared over breakfast that very same morning. Biking out on Calaveras Road, she came upon a crowd of cyclists, some cars, and one very frightened cow. Call 911? Not much cell coverage out there. She spotted the gap in the fence, herded the cow back through it and mended the fence with some zip ties. "You carry zip ties?" Nonplussed, she replied "Oh, some of my friends are emergency responders and they always carry zip ties." Her zip ties are still out there in a fence along Calaveras Road, if you know where to look.