Found/Stray Dog in Gainesville, FL 32609

Description

Australian Cattle Dog, blue hound mix, with large black spot on left back hip. Creamy tan colored paws, brown eyebrow beads

Message from Finder

He was brought up the road to the Humane Society on October 5th. They normally don't do intakes but because I'm homeless with pets of my own I can barely keep, they made an exception. However they didn't, and still won't, give me an intake number because I guess, since the exception was made they're processing him off the record. He wasn't wearing a collar when he came up to the picnic table at 2 am of the Circle K gas station and licked my elbow, startling me unexpectedly because there were nearly no customers present at that time. He acted very timid but also playful, pouncing at me and another woman who had stopped to help catch him, but then zooming away before we could get close enough to grab him. Eventually the other person had to leave but I stuck around and kept trying until I was successful. It wasn't easy. He was actively searching for his family it seemed. He was going right up to every car that pulled in and sniffing it. It almost got him hit by one. So I had to make sure I got a tether around him the next time he came up to me for belly rubs, a drink of water, a snack or just cuddles. By now he trusted me enough to repeatedly get closer to me to do all those things but every time I brought out the makeshift leash I had available, he would spin away, not letting me get it over his head. Eventually I had him follow me to a different building, one with no other people at that hour and I put out a blanket and waited for him to join me on it. At first, after a few minutes, he ran back to the gas station, but I went back also and then had him follow me back to the other building with the blanket still laid out. He wouldn't get on it with me but tucked himself under a bush against the building and took a short nap. When he woke up, (actually I was calling out to him because I knew the sprinklers were about to go off) he lay down near the blanket and we just hung out together for a bit. I played on my phone and he watched me with droopy tired eyes. Then I got up and sat in my chair I carry in my shopping cart and he came and put his head in my lap and I gave him some hugs and got the tiny blue, what I thought was rope but turned out to be a drawstring from a pair of sweatpants around his head. It wasn't much but it was all I had to work with at the time. He didn't like it. Seemed like he hadn't had much leash training. We made our way back to the gas station. He again wanted to investigate everyone coming to the place. So we sat at the picnic tables again for several hours, watching, but no one came for him and he didn't see anybody familiar. Eventually I was going to have to go back to my tent and let my dogs go potty. So I removed something I had in my cart to help tie things in it if needed, it is not a rope but a length of nylon truckers ribbon that they use to secure things on their load. Not sure what it's called. But I triple folded it and made it into a collar then secured the blue drawstring to it as a leash. That gave me a little more control over him but he still clearly did not like having no freedom to roam on his own. We made it to my camp and luckily I had just bought a used dog crate a few days prior that was entirely too big for my dogs but was the only thing available after the latch on one of my dog crates busted from being old. I secured him in the new big crate to let my dogs do their morning business (which by now had become their afternoon business) and the first thing they did when let out was go straight to him where he sat in his crate and bark their faces off at him. He did not bark back. In fact, he never barked the whole time I had him. Not once. Not at squirrels, not at bicyclists, birds, the scary lawn maintenance people at the gas station with the hedge trimmers, noisy lawn mower and leaf blowers, nor the bull dog coming out of the humane society as we were about to go in or the little 5 pound Yorkie that rushed up on him while unleashed and barking a frenzy in the humane society parking lot. He's rather a mellow dog, temperament wise, to other animals, until he sees a stray cat running the sidewalk, then he wants to chase it. But he still didn't bark at it either. Whoever owned this dog I hope you're looking for him and have plenty proof of ownership so the Humane society will give him back. Pictures on your phone, veterinarian bills and records etc. I have a small clip of video I took of him while with me, to help you identify if this is your boy better than what a still photo shows. You can view it by checking @Earthbiscuit_TD on Instagram I hope if you get him back or if anybody else goes to adopt him they'll message me on the Instagram and make arrangements to bring him around to see me one last time. He's really a good dog. A little willful and stubborn but a sweet heart. He seemed to have really bad ear infections when I found him and was in pain from it but was still a good boy. I wish my circumstances and health could have allowed me to choose to keep him. But they're not and it wouldn't have been fair to him. I thought taking him where I did would be best but without having a way to trace his outcome, I'm worried for him. They claim he is in quarantine for three days and will then be assessed for eligibility for adoption since there was no microchip in him. Whoever ends up with this dog please reach out to me and bring him around to say hi or goodbye. I'll be content with either as long as I know he survived the over crowded shelter system and has a family.