Going to the dogs

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr day! Good old Martin fought long and hard for the rights of many people, but apparently those rights don't cover the right to keep your day off of school instead of making up a snow day. At least not in my school district. Thus, I trekked off to work in the cold dark this morning while my husband and kids slept snug in their beds...dreaming of MLK I'm sure. I left a short list for each family member, just so they wouldn't be bored. And I called during afternoon recess, just to check in. I heard the voice of my husband say hello...and a strange cacophony of rowdy boy voices in the background. He assured me they were doing fine. Parker just had a few friends over, and Hillary's boyfriend was here. Oh, and they had a surprise for me when I got home.
I walked in the door to a clean kitchen counter, and a humming washing machine. So far so good. Then I followed the pieces of tracked in leaves across the living room and down the hall and was met with the skinniest, most pathetic brown puppy I've ever seen. Surprise!
I have to let you know that I'm not a big animal person. Throughout the years we've tried to have pets. But it's never really worked out in the best interest of me or the pet. The fish we had got sucked up in the filter...the gerbil made the mistake of learning how to escape his aquarium and running across the keys of Hillary's toy piano, waking me up and leaving me no choice but to put him and his glass box outside on the freezing porch (sleep deprivation does not add to my character)...the duckling we bought one Easter choked on his food pellets in the night...and the deranged dog a co-worker gave me was given away after he bit Parker. So I had sworn off all pets until we moved here. When we bought our house in the country, Yancey and the kids begged for a dog. All the neighbors had dogs..and it could run free..and I would never have to feed it, wash it, or clean up after it. So I gave in and we got a sweet puppy from the shelter. I've come to love her, and she mostly takes care of herself...outside...except for the coldest days of winter (like today) when I let the kids bring her in until the freezing weather passes.
So now, our dog, Lady, is sprawled on the couch, watching TV, and I'm trying to sidestep the starving puppy while scanning the carpet for dog poop. "Off!" I command, because I cannot stand animals on my furniture. Lady just looks at me lazily and does not move. Since she weighs almost as much as me I had to stand on the couch and push her off with my feet. For an outside dog, she's wasted no time making herself comfortable in my house. You might be wondering why I wasn't calling for my husband at this point. He and Hillary were already gone to his basketball game. But I know he was thinking of me, because he called a few minutes later and told me to be sure to leave some roast and potatoes for him and Hillary. Since Parker and I have never really eaten a 4 pound roast with potatoes and carrots by ourselves, I'm not sure what he was worried about. I briefly considered giving his portion to the starving puppy.
This is what I get for leaving my family at home alone for more than an hour. My social husband throws a party and my bleeding heart daughter finds a scrawny homeless animal to take in. What to do? What to do? Now that the animal is in my house, I feel a certain sense of responsibility. I could easily pass it by on the road and pretend that someone else would find it, but I can't so easily throw it outside. My family assures me that they searched hard for the owner, going door to door around our neighborhood. I do not believe them. So for tonight, the lucky puppy is safe, warm, and fed. And tomorrow I will try to find a new place for him. Until then I guess we've gone to the dogs...