People getting rid of dogs are like people getting rid of cars.

You don’t get rid of something unless there’s some kind of issue.

A person can talk up the thing they’re trying to eject from their lives like it was the greatest thing to ever hit the planet, though. They can describe it in glowing terms.

They can entice.

In the case of a car, the description can include words as hopeful as “for parts…or fix up and drive” or “needs TLC”.

Who wouldn’t jump at a description like that? It’s a challenge of some sort.

“Hate to sell, but…” is another one. That ship will never sail again. You wouldn’t even have a chance of buying the beloved whatever if you didn’t catch these fools in a moment of weakness.

You better jump on it while that miracle window is open.

Now, dogs are even more interesting.

You really have to read between the lines with an ad trying to “rehome” a dog.

It may be a pretty blatant red flag…like “doesn’t like children” or “must not be around cats” or “outside dog only….bites”.

Those are things that I watch for…but I don’t have to ponder very hard.

I don’t want a dog that bites.

All dogs bite.

I want a dog.

I just don’t want a dog who bites very often.

It’s the more subtle clues that make me wonder exactly what is going on with the dog and this family that needs to get rid of it.

It’s the clues like “energetic” or “needs fenced yard” or even, and I haven’t seen this one yet but I suspect I will, “eats too much”.

There’s a lot of mixed breed puppies who need to be rehomed, too.

That’s kind of a “crap shoot”.

(Is that how you spell “crap shoot”? It sounds kind of bad….)

The people with these puppies make it sound like they did some paternity testing or something..”mother is a purebred Great Pyrenees…father is a roamer, but is a prizewinning Georgianna Mastiff…or something cool sounding like that…we think.”

I never imagined that it could be narrowed down like that. Except for the “roamer” part. That’s probably pretty accurate.

So…the reason I’m pondering all this is that some folks on my route have two dogs that they may be looking for new homes for.

I know these two dogs. I’ve fed them pounds of dog bones over the years. They’re great dogs. Smart dogs. Good around kids.

One’s a white shepherd and the other is a big chocolate lab.

These are great dogs. I know them. I’ve talked to them a bunch over the years. They’re good buddies.

And I know what the problems with them are.

They are curious and they like to explore the world around them.

That’s a bonus in a person, I would think. It’s a good thing to be curious about your world.

I do think that we’d be arrested eventually if we wound up in someone else’s yard or the homeowners woke up to find us in their kitchens….just because we were curious roamers.

We would be sent to the slammer in a heartbeat.

There has to be a limit on how we express our curiosity.

Dogs get in trouble for checking things out, too.

And there’s the “rub”…could I corral these two dogs without totally breaking their spirits? Would it be like taking on a “too far gone” car project because I was sure that I was more competent than the person who was broken by the derelict dream and who just gave up instead of continuing to try?

Am I the man for the job?

Would it be a situation where I could say, “Yeah…those dogs used to get in so much trouble for roaming around…but they have so much fun at my house that they stick close to home now.”

I don’t really know.

Those two dogs are pretty great, though.