One year ago

One year ago on a Friday he called and said "we caught her"..."can you go down to the shelter and fill out the adoption papers?"   I walked past  rows of dogs and  found her on the back  of the shelter curled  in the corner.   It looked like prison for doggies.
I arranged for the pug brothers RIP to meet her, told the shelter all we knew about  her and they  told me she might not ever become "tame".    Our only concern was she not eat the pug brothers.....everything else would  take time.   Tuesday of the next week Mattie came home to her forever home, lived here two nights and was gone again.  Neck slipped out, I tripped, and off into the night she went.    Sightings around town El Rincon, Golden Chick, and the hardest of all ...we saw her over by the baptist church and tried to get her to come.   We stopped following because she was running towards 1825, a major highway.   I put her picture in the hands of everyone I knew, called animal control and was afraid to call the shelter afraid they would take her back because we had just lost the dog we adopted.      She had stitches  from being spayed and no collar and a chip  that still needed to be registered via a website.    It looked pretty hopeless and while she was considered  "wild" her wild days had been at a pharmaceutical plant, surrounded by pastures  of green grass and chirping birds.   She had played chase with the employees, ate their snacks, chased rabbits from the shrubbery swam and drank from the pond and had made quite a home for herself  in this really safe place to be a wild dog.
No one  knew if she had ever been off the property before being sighted.
On Saturday, a phone call from a man "have you lost a dog?"  He described her and I gave an address and he brought her back to us.    He lived close to the HEB @ Wells Branch...so Mattie was traveling away from us.  He  didn't have to work hard to catch her...in his yard, there was a corner and she curled up in a ball.  He said she looked like she had just given up.  Once inside he said he noticed that she had fresh stitches and I still don't know who he called to find us, but Mattie walked back into our  home two days after I lost her  and hasn't left us again.

The pics below are of Mattie and Hattie the Hen.   I thought they were appropriate from wild dog to our dog  anniversary pics because Hattie brought  back  Mattie's hunting, found my food, get away or I'll snap you wild dog instincts.
Hattie is plastic, with lipstick and wears a bikini.   She does not look like a real bird.   She  squeaks.
When Hattie came out, Mattie picked her up, and then stood guard from the floor and the  couch.    The former wild dog was protecting her bikini clad rubber chicken from her brothers...the one with no teeth and the one who just wants to play.   She snapped and lunged when they tried to  enter a boundary that included the  entire living room.        Hattie never made it to  the basket of chew toys.   We hide Hattie.    I brought her out for the closeup shot, but Hattie will return to hiding.

Mattie...wild dog to our dog.