So I was driving home from work, going to fetch the kids from school, and was only a few blocks away, when I pulled up to a red light at the intersection of Sudley Rd and Godwin. This is the main drag through Manassas, and my side of the road has 1 left turn lane, 2 straight lanes, and a right hand turn lane. (VERY BUSY.)

I was pretty dismayed to see a friendly looking dog loping around right in the street. The cars were stopped, but I had JUST pulled to a stop, and there were many cars zooming along in the right turn lane.

This little (not really that little) guy was running RIGHT up to the cars, and I even saw him rear up, put his paws on the hood of one car and turn his head sideways to look at the driver. He kept trying to look at the people, get at the people, “hey! look at me! I need to find my people!” he seemed to be saying. I could see he had a collar, and I kept thinking, someone has got to do something. SOMEONE HAS GOT TO DO SOMETHING OR THIS DOG IS GOING TO GET HURT. I heard a horn honk as the dog sort of galloped into the right turn lane, not someone about to hit him and trying to scare him away, but one of the stopped cars trying to warn oncoming cars of his presence.

I got out, and a simple, “Here, boy!” brought him to my side. I opened the passenger door beside me, and he hopped right up, panting and wagging his tail happily. “Look at me! I found help! I’M SUCH A GOOD BOY!!” (drool) (pant) “OH IMA GOOD BOY!) He was adorable. (Definitely a boy. Definitely un-fixed in any way.)

I called James and set him on the path of finding where exactly I should take the dog while I continued on my way to get the kids. Soon, the kids were collected, and fascinated by the cute pooch in the back and I took him to the Manassas animal shelter. Jocelyn kept saying, “No poochie!” because that is what she always says to the cats at home, until I said, “how about, “Good poochie!” and then she said that, over and over and over. Ethan kept asking the directions to the shelter. And kept telling me all the animals they would have there. “Cats, mommy. And dogs. And RABBITS.”

The lady behind the counter gave me some withering looks as she commented, “You put the dog in with your kids?” I paused, blushed, and said, “Nooooooo… I got the dog out of the road… and THEN went and put the kids in the car with the dog.” But really, the dog was in the back of my SUV. (Not that he couldn’t have gone over, but still. He wasn’t sitting in their laps.)
I can see her point. I have no idea what sort of dog this is. I quick google image search on ‘pit bull’ makes me go, “Hmmm.. maybe.” But I just knew from the few seconds watching him trying to look into all the cars stopped at that light, that he was a dog looking for his home. I’ve heard the scare stories about pitbulls, and the other side of sweet pitbulls, and this guy sure was a mellow dog. Not a rabid, scared animal who is on the offensive (or even defensive). The whole time he was with me, he was a complete sweetheart.

I’m posting on craigslist, and any other ‘lost pets’ websites I can find. Hopefully this sweet pooch will find his way home again. And hopefully they put some ID tags on him!