Leap year Lana

Lana coming out of the crate and into Linda's embrace. 
She was uncertain but was perfectly fine meeting me.

Today is leap year day, the extra day added to the month of February every 4 years to keep our calendar in sync with the movement of the planet.  I can't think that I've noticed or thought much about leap year day in the past 20 or 30 years, but it's one of many things that show up on Facebook.

The big smile

I feel like today should be a work-free day, especially because yesterday seemed like an extra 24 hours packed into one day. 

I drove down to Natural Bridge to meet Linda, who brought me Lana from way down in southwest Virginia.  Her grand-daughter had brought Lana to her from North Carolina where she lives.  The grand-daughter has a fenced yard and a boxer of her own.  She went outside one morning and found Lana in her fenced yard.  She had seen the dog around the neighborhood previously and believes that the owner dropped (dumped) her in the yard in the hope that Lana would find a home there. 

That's a slight variation on the method of driving a dog out to the country and dumping it so the person feels that the dog has a chance at that mythical life in the country running free on a big farm.  That cowardly approach allows the person to feel that they did the right thing because they fear the result of taking the dog to the shelter.  Actually they fear the shame they would rightly feel by facing another human and saying I'm here to dump my dog.  The ugly reality of dogs dumped in the country is that most of them starve, are shot, or are killed on the roads, living their last few days or weeks in fear.  But I digress.

Lana was dumped into a good situation.  The unwitting recipient is a boxer owner and lover and she has a grandmother in Virginia who loves all creatures and who knows me.  So that's how Lana came to be in a crate in my office next to Radley last night.  She's a bit domineering with him, but she's been in heat recently so part of that may be the hormones talking.  Linda said she did a bit of posturing with the dogs in her house but was fine, and even laid side by side with one of her cats. 

She will need to get to the vet for vaccines, tests, and to be spayed, of course.  But I really need to work today so it will wait. 

Linda giving Lana the goodbye kiss.  I've done this many times.  You look them in the eye, plant a big kiss on the forehead, and tell them that everything will be all right. Then you trust the next person--a transporter, foster, or eventually an adopter, to make it so.