If only...

This week has gone fast.

I have spent nearly every waking minute that I wasn't doing school stuff trying to find a home for a little 10-lb. chihuahua mix that I found running around my school building on Mon. morning. Evan and I even took it home for 2 days. It crapped on the back seat of Evan's car and marked the apartment several times. Poor adult, unneutered, not housebroken, sweet dog.

Evan and I thought the dogs of East Tennessee had it bad. Not so. There, I saw a stray dog around my old school and called the humane society. They came to pick it up. Here you have to bring it in yourself, and you have to have an appointment. You have to call at 8:30 in the morning and try to get an appointment that day. Their line is busy most of the time, and there are never appointments after 4 pm. You can expect a line of other dogs in front of you--other people trying to make appointments for the animals--15 dogs (humane society) or 30 dogs long (no-kill shelter). All of the shelters are full. The no-kill shelter said they could get this dog a spot in 2-3 WEEKS.

Stray dogs are a huge problem, apparently, in places in the city where I don't go. Unneutered, unspayed dogs who keep breeding. The pound euthanizes 500 dogs a day, and still the shelters are full.

I made it my mission to find this dog a home. I talked to parents, kids. I tried to talk Evan into letting us keep it in our one-bedroom apartment along with Annie. I called chihuahua rescues and every shelter in town numerous times. Another teacher kept it two nights while we worked on this.

I failed. A friend's husband took the dog to animal control this morning. He has about 3 days to find a home. The people there think he'll be easy to place. That people will see his sweet face and gentle manner and want him. He's a statistic, just one more dog in the city. He's better off the street, I tell myself. He's not impregnating other dogs. His worms and infected dew claws might be dealt with. If he finds a home.

Please, God, watch over the little dog tonight.