A Second Chance!

(Picture looks like Buster would have looked like as a puppy)

But he wasn't full grown yet either.

Seven days ago my Grandfather was eating breakfast and heard a knock at the front door, so he went to see who was there but didn't see anyone there so he went back to his breakfast, again he heard a knocking at the door. This time he opened the door and looked down and seen a dog on his front porch. When he opened the door the dog came right inside looked in all the rooms and then sat on the couch like he was right at home.

It had just snowed the night before and there was no footprints or tire tracks only paw prints from the dog. He wondered where this dog came from. Thinking maybe someone dropped him off along side of the road somewhere. Not having much to take care of a dog he fed it scraps from his own meals for about 4 days then got ahold of my mother and step-father because they have a dog and told him about the dog showing up on his doorstep.

Grampa asked My step-father to come over to try to see what kind of dog he was, so Alan went over there with some dog food and Grampa decided that he didn't want the responsibility of taking care of a dog after mourning the death of his cat that he had for 15 1/2 yrs. (It just recently died a few months ago.) All of us thought that grampa should have kept the dog for a companion but I guess the thought of cleaning dog poop wasn't exactally what grampa had in mind. ( cats take care of themselves and don't have to be taken outside constantly)

Anyways, Alan brought the dog ( Grampa named him Buster because it reminded him of Buster Brown) back over to their house, where he made friends with their dog "Teddy" (a pomeranian) but they had their hands full with Teddy and didn't want another dog. They decided the right thing to do was to put an add in the paper saying they found a dog.

Bill was over there doing some work on their house for Alan and fell in love with the dog (actually eveyone did) and wanted to keep Buster. So he brought him home where he stayed with us for a couple days but knowing if the owner called we would have to give him back.

The add ran in the paper for 3 days and no one called the first day or the second day and thought we was in the clear to keep the dog until late in the evening tonight.

I came home from bowling (which was not a good night for me anyways with my arthritis killing me all night long needless to say I didn't do very well at all) and Kodie my son told me almost in tears that someone called for Buster. I felt sick to my stomach immediately. Knowing what Bill had to do almost killed me as much as it was killing him.

Bill talked to the man "Bob" and he described "Buster" to a T and even had a picture so there was no denying the man his dog which he called "Chance." Somehow his daughter was walking "Buster/Chance" and the sister of "Buster/Chance" and somehow they got away from her. ( which to me doesnt make any sense because we didnt have to put "Buster" on a leash and he would stay right in the yard with us and never ran off or away from us. And he would come if we called him.) So not believing that story of how the man lost his dog(s).

Somehow "Buster" made it from Sheffield Ohio to my grandfather's house which is almost in Kingsville Ohio. (the ashtabula river runs between sheffield and rt 84 which is the road my grandfather lives on. With very tall steep cliffs on both sides of the river. One might die or be terribly injured if he fell off either side of these cliffs. And finding a path down to the river is slim and finding another path back up the other side would be slim too.

But there is a path behind my grandfather's property that leads down to the river but me and my brother have been down there and if you dont know exactally where you are going you can get lost very easy. That was years ago when you could see a path. I went down there 5 yrs ago when I moved back up from Youngstown Ohio the path was over grown and hardly noticable anymore. (I almost didn't find my way back!) But Alan thinks thats where "Buster" must have come up from.

So we are all upset over losing "Buster" he was a really good dog and well behaved. We offered the man 500 dollars to keep "Buster" but he wanted his "Chance" and refused the money. All Of us are heartbroken now and we are dealing with the pain of it all. It's almost like we lost our Best Friend.

He was a good dog. But now he has a second Chance with his original family. I think no matter how we feel that we did the right thing. I'm sure if it happened to us we would want our pet/friend back again. I'm happy "Buster/Chance" found his home again.