Every weekend (usually on Saturday), I have an early lunch at a place in Austin called China Star. I've been eating there since I first moved to Austin several years ago; and while it's not exactly the classiest place I've dined in (I'll certainly be the first to admit it), I really dig their food even though others might not.
Moving right along...
On my way to get my carb fix for today, we came across a stray dog wandering around the neighborhood dangerously close to the freeway access road. We noticed he didn't have a collar on (why are people so cheap?), so we decided to try to approach the dog with a bottle of water I had in my car.
He didn't run, but he obviously wasn't in the mood to have a drink, either. Without hesitating, the poor fellow (what seems to be a Boxer/Bulldog mix) climbed right into my car--most likely for the air conditioning going full blast.
I drove him home and put him in the backyard, noticing some gashes around his face and top of his head (which I can assume came from escaping from under a fence, or something of the like). I set him up on the porch in the shade with a bowl of water and a couple of dog biscuits which he didn't seem really interested in.
I treated his gashes with some anti-bacterial lotion and cleaned the slobber from around his mouth. He never once showed aggression, and certainly had no problems making eye-contact with me during the whole process.
We knocked on a few doors in the area and some people seemed to think he came from a particular house. We left a detailed note on their door and made our way up to China Star and ran our errands before coming back to check on the dog. I've been calling him "Butkus" all afternoon, because, well, he looks like a "Butkus" to me.
I took a few pictures of the dog and made flyers which I posted around the neighborhood. We went back to the house where we suspected he came from, but the owners still aren't in. I took a box fan out on the back porch with a mountain of ice cubes I set up behind it and set it on full blast. I fed him about a half pound of turkey which he immediately scarfed.
In case you're wondering, I have two dogs of my own, so bringing Butkus in right now is out of the question. I noticed he had fleas on him, so I gave him an application of Advantix across his neck and spine, before giving him an adult dog vitamin pill--he looked like he could use it.
So, Butkus is my "random picture" of the day. If I didn't already have two dogs and such a full plate, I'd give him a wonderful home...
