Stray animals everywhere!

I cannot believe the weekend I have had. Every single thing I had planned has gone out the window. It started on Friday morning around 8.30, when I was returning from taking my friend's children to school, since she is away. At the bottom of our hill, deep in the forest and miles from anywhere, I found a small wet, shivering dog cowering at the roadside. He was very scared, but I got him into my car and took him home, where I looked him over. He was longhaired, but all his hair had become thick mats that covered and hung off his body. He could hardly see or even walk. He was also covered in thorns, faeces, and general muck. But his eyes were bright and once he decided that I was not going to hurt him, he became super friendly. So I made an immediate vet appointment and then tried to clean him up a bit. The vet said he is a Shih-Tzu, but he is not chipped or tattooed. So I brought him home again and completed the clean up with a total razor cut and two baths, all of which he took with stoicism and eventually, I think, with relief. He has spent the weekend in my back hall and on a long lead in the garden, and has met Tasha and Bonaparte, who both seem to like him. But I cannot keep him - he is completely the wrong sort of dog for country life, even if I wanted another dog, which is really impossible. I have advertised him on a couple websites for lost dogs and also in the local vets, shops etc. But I fear that someone has abandoned him and the owner will not be found. On Tuesday I will take him to the mayor's office, who are the only people with authority to admit him to a shelter. Meanwhile, he is a friendly, playful little dog who just wants affection. It is such a shame.

And then today I had to go to pick up a guy who is rebuilding my pond, from a village around 10 miles away. we had hardly started back when I turned a corner and was met by two horses galloping towards me down the centre of the road. Fortunately they swerved and went onto some grass before we actually met. There were no farms close by so I carried on looking for someone I could inform. But I could find no-one and I have to confess I left them on the grass. Fate paid me back though - around a mile from home I found another stray horse, this time standing right in the middle of the road, so I had to stop. I managed to get her into an unfenced field and then left my handyman there watching her while I went back half a mile to an equestrian centre I know. But there was no one there - today there was a big local Endurance Ride and everyone was out. They had left their tack room open, so I borrowed a headcollar and lead and went back, got her on the lead and then walked her back down the road to the centre and left her in their front manege with a bucket of water. I know she is not one of their horses, but they know everyone round about and I am sure they will have phoned the owners on their return. I really do not know what else I could have done - at least she was safe.

When I told my mother about the adventure she said she was only surprised that I had not come back with three horses behind the car!

Well, one week later and the little dog is still with me, despite advertising him. He is playing beautifully with Tasha and really is a sweet little guy. But I do want to find him a home rather than take him to the Pound, which I will have to do next Friday if nothing happens. There are some people who said they would come to see him next week, so keep your fingers crossed.

Here he is, with all the muck and crap cut off him.