I lovedthis story of a “town dog” who everyday, walks 4 miles into town just to walk around and see everyone.
I wonder, have you ever experienced a “town dog”? A dog that would wander the town and just greet everyone?
Not a town dog, and not quite the same thing, but the neighborhood cat Twinkles. She officially lives with folks about two blocks down but often hangs around various houses for a day or two before returning home. A week later she is back again. I’ve hosted her many times over the last three or so years.
A neighborhood cats; actually a few of them over the last 35 years. Strays that wander in and become sort of adopted by everyone at large. Never known a town dog although back home there were a few “owned” who basically had the run of the area and would greet/respond to almost everyone.
We’re told that before we moved to our current neighborhood, the pig now belonging to our neighbor Tom was actually the pig of the whole neighborhood. He used to live a few miles up the road and he would get out and cruise around visiting everyone. (They called him Arnold, of course). Arnold developed an attachment to Tom’s animals and decided to stay on permanently. I always refer to him as the pig who ran away from home to be a horse.
We had a Sonic cat who would go from car to car doing the cutest sit up and meowing. The PTB made it go away. I think one of the car-hops took it home.
We had a Wal-Mart dog for a while. She always seemed to be nursing puppies. People would buy cans of food and feed her. The local vet picked her up and spayed and gave her rabies shot. Of course she disappeared right after that.
My Pharmacy has a cat. A calico named Tablet. The pharmacist feeds her. She has a house and a cat tree behind the building. You can see her when you use the drive thru window.
Dung Beetle - Where I used to board my horse we had a stray pot-bellied pig that took up residence. The owner would come and take him home, but sooner or later Henry (AKA Porkchop) would be back. Finally the owner got tired of fetching him and said either we could keep him or he’s “haul him off”, which didn’t bode well for Henry. We kept him. He and one horse were particularly attached, and both would scream and fuss if separated buy a fence.
My dog was a bit of a neighborhood dog. Back in the days before everybody fenced their dogs in, I’d get up early and let Kate run. She was always bat in an hour, before most people were up and about. She wasn’t eating, so I took her to the vet. The vet said she’d gained 2 lbs. It turns out, several neighbors on our block would have scraps to give her, and she’d go from door to door. Some would keep scraps away from their own dogs, so they could feed Kate. I had to convince them that she was getting everything she needed at home.
StG
Awww, horsepigs living their dreams!
Over the years I’ve had inside/outside cats that come and go as they please–some rarely want to leave the house, some prefer to roam. There is one current one in particular, a fairly large grey one that I call Grady (get it?) He became mostly an “outside” cat because the other cats for whatever reason chose him to be the buttmonkey. It went from going days at a time with seeing him to weeks at a time and now months at a time. Just when I start to assume that I’ll never see him again, he shows up wanting a meal and some petting, after which he disappears again. Each time he is heavy and full-bellied, so he ain’t starving. To be that well-fed, he has to have at least one other home where someone is feeding him. For all I know, he may have several. (He’s fixed, so he can’t be out chasing the ladies.)
I guess I should have added in a neighborhood cat, which I have seen. Never thought of a neighborhood pig.
One time we had a neighborhood peacock. It was owned by a neighbor and the thing would show up on occasion in various peoples backyards. I have read that peacocks are like cats and they will choose where they live.
We used to live way out in the country (still do, but different area). All 5+ acre lots at the end of a gravel road, nice houses. One of our neighbors had two young, unneutered male husky mixes, and we had an enormous (neutered) male Weimaraner. None of us had fenced yards, but our dogs stayed close to the house. The huskies roamed. There was a serious bromance going on between the three boys, but it wasn’t a problem. The huskies were friendly and we didn’t mind their visits.
Anyway, we put the house on the market, FSBO. My husband and I were in our 20s at the time. We were showing it to a posh older couple, and were talking on the front porch as they were leaving. The huskies arrived. Our Weimaraner laid down at the bottom of the porch steps, while one of the huskies proceeded to hump his head. We all politely ignored the situation, and then the husky ejaculated all over our Weim. Nobody said a word. The posh couple did not purchase the house.
“Free pearl necklace with purchase!”
I was in Key West one time setting at an outdoor bar having a beer. I’m looking out to the street and I see a dog walk into a bar. About 15 seconds he left that bar and walked into a clothing store. (Many of the bar/store owners leave their doors open and many have a bowl of water on the outside)
I watched the dog go into 3 or 4 more locations until it went out of site. About 40 mins that dog entered “my” bar and the bar tender tossed him/her a dog biscuit and the dog left and went to the next place which was out of site. I assumed he went down the rest of that side of the street.
Pretty cool little gig that dog had.
There is a bad-ass dog (some sort of huge, mangy Chow thing) up in Tahoe on my friend’s street that was abandoned when the owner moved away. The new homeowners have a dog of their own and I guess they don’t get along, so they won’t “adopt” it, but leave it’s house under the front deck and it kind of comes and goes around the neighborhood.
The story goes, it frequently faces off with coyotes and even chased off a bear once.
Any time a dog shows up at my house ( in the boonies) it’s because someone dumped it at the end of my private road. Mr.Wrekker says they won the dog lottery when they end up here. It happens 5 or 6 times a year. So far I’ve manage to rehome or find owners of 50 or 60 dogs, puppies and cats.
There are plenty of neighborhood cats in my mom’s neighborhood, centered more or less on Mom’s front porch (Mom keeps an insulated cat shelter for them, for when it gets really cold, as it does sometimes around here). One of them has decided to almost completely domesticate herself, but absolutely panics if a door closes her inside, so she can’t be a house cat.
There also used to be a church cat, who would wander in every morning for daily mass, sit there attentively, then leave once mass was over.
A holy cat. Cool.
In my experience, all peacocks are neighborhood peacocks.
When I was a little kid, the neighborhood children ran free (there was a period where several of my friends and I believed we were part mustang). There was a collie mix who hung out with us named George. He spent a few weeks at my house – my parents were lenient – and then he disappeared for awhile, and then he showed up again in the neighborhood. Turned out he was a kind of serial family dog, who was so handsome and genial he could always find food and lodging somewhere or other. He probably was legally owned by someone, but we never found out who.
There were a couple of town cats in the student ghetto in college. In that particular neighborhood, most landlords were ok with cats but didn’t allow dogs. I’m quite sure that my roommates’ cats wondered around the neighborhood as well, the cats spent a lot of time outdoors