Adventures on the way to WalMart...

The weather is weird.  Torrential rain.  Sideways blowing wet stuff.  Despite this, I had to make a trek to Wal-Mart to get the Christmas photos printed up. 

Given the weather I opted for the "service road" route rather than the "through town" route or the "interstate" route.  The service road is in the middle of the swamp and is slowly sinking into it.  But there isn't much traffic and I was going slow.  Which was a good thing.

As we neared a bridge crossing a little bayou, a black dog came darting out from the opposite side of the road.  I came to a complete stop to avoid hitting her.  And then  I got out to make sure she was ok.  She was crouched down in the center of the road, unharmed but terrified.  Remember when Zoe showed up at the house and she was so thin that it hurt to look at her?  Repeat with this dog.  Every rib is jutting out.  The vertebral column looks like a picket fence.  I examined her quickly (since traffic was backing up behind me and it was raining) and then...grabbed her up in my arms and put her in the van.

What else could I do?

So, she is in my bathroom.

She is an adult, female Labrador Retriever.  I would guess about 3-4 years old.  She has had a litter of puppies and I am pretty sure she has been spayed.  Lest you are all fussing at me for lifting up an adult female Lab (I totally spaced on the no lifting restriction, honest) I doubt I did any damage anyway.  She can't weigh more than twenty pounds.  Both front paws are ripped to shreds...the pad leathers are barely hanging on.  Not sure what did that.  But otherwise, she seems healthy.  She ate three bowls of kibble.  She is afraid, but she has a sweet, gentle energy about her.  Her head looks huge in the photo.... it looks huge in real life.  Her body is just fur and bone, so it makes her head look too big for her body.

The plan is to see if she is somebody's missing dog.  We'll go from there if she is not.  In the meantime, she is camped out in the bathroom. 

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Otherwise, I am down to the last minute Christmas panic.  What have I forgotten?  Why can't I think of anything really special to get for David?  How many gift certificates do I need to get?  How many cakes am I baking and where will I put them?  I do this every year.  I mostly ignore me. 

I have begun to wrap gifts, though.  It looks like Christmas.

Tomorrow the internet people are coming bright and early.  As soon as that is done, then the day *really* gets busy.  I guess that means I need to go to sleep.