Christmas At The OK Correll-2010 – with a Pint-Sized Christmas Miracle

Most of you who know me know that our house has gone to the dogs. We have seven dogs (well, eight as of Christmas Eve, but more about that later) and they all sleep in the house each night. They normally don’t chew or tear things up badly, partly due to the $20 per month we’ve allowed in our budget for rawhide chewies.

We have nice furniture in our living room that is normally covered up about 363 days of the year. Yesterday on Christmas Day was one of the rare occasions when we uncovered our nice couch, chair and piano. This was the first year for a while we’ve decorated for Christmas and the porcelain nativity scene we purchased before we moved here in 2000, made its debut in our rural Coffeyville house. This was made possible by putting the big dogs out in their fenced yard while attempting to have a nice quiet Christmas dinner with Susan and I entertaining my sister and brother-in-law from Leon who we haven’t seen for several years. We let the two dachshunds stay in the warm house, along with the miniature poodle we “rescued” on Christmas Eve. It was mostly quiet, save for the occasional uproar when dogs outside would go off about something, causing the dachshunds to join in.

On Christmas Eve day, Susan and I went to Independence at lunch time, noticing a tiny black dog in the driveway of a house down our road that looked vacant. I don’t think we saw it when we returned home. Later, about dusk, I went into Coffeyville to get some last minute supplies for Christmas dinner. I saw the dog in the driveway again; house still looking vacant. On my way back home, I decided that if the little dog was still in the driveway, I would bring it home; it was too small to sleep in the cold open air for the night. I pulled into the driveway, not spotting the black dog in the dark. I saw that a rug or foot mat was pushed into a corner of the porch and swung the car around so the headlights illuminated the pile. I thought I saw just a slight movement and got out of the car to see a tiny, miniature or toy (whichever is the smallest) poodle looking at me from atop the heap of rug. As I picked her up, I heard a dog in the house barking. Oh, oh; this wouldn’t be the first time we’ve known of someone moving out and leaving dogs behind in this inexcusable manner.

The "new" little dog made herself right at home.

I went on home, using a tone to “come here” after entering the house that Susan knew something was up (or wrong). We got the little three-pound (if she was wet) dog situated and fed then called the sheriff’s department to tell them we thought there was at least one dog left in an abandoned house. Later, I led the two deputies to the house. There was fresh mail in the mailbox but no sign of life in the house except for the barking dog. One deputy stepped up on a concrete block to see a lighted fire through the window and a torn bag of dog food. So, other than the fact that someone had left a three pound dog out in the elements, maybe the house wasn’t abandoned after all. They called the owner/landlord of the rental house to meet them there. Not wanting to be involved in that discussion, I went home to await a call from the deputy after visiting with the landlord. The call came from the younger of the two that the house was indeed lived in and that the landlord had taken the young couple into Coffeyville the day before so they could, somehow, go visit relatives in Iola for the holiday. They had made arrangements for someone to care for the dog(s). It was not clear why the little one had been left outside or if it even belonged to the couple.

The younger deputy instructed me that it would be best to return the little dog where I found it. I told him I would not return a three pound dog to an open porch when the low temperature for night was to be around freezing or below. He said “You can’t go around taking dogs off of people’s porches just because you don’t agree with how they are being cared for.” I repeated again I would not return the dog. If the owners contacted us on Christmas Day, we would discuss returning the dog to them. He said he would have his sergeant (the other deputy) call me. They both came by our house and the sergeant said he didn’t have a problem with us keeping the dog overnight since he knew where to find us. If the people wanted their dog back and we didn’t give it, we’d be in trouble for “harboring” stolen property. We acknowledged and repeated that we’d discuss the return of the dog with the owners, if they contacted us and, indeed, were the owners of the little dog.

The next evening, at about 7:30, the sergeant called to say he thought he had figured out the situation. Seems the little female poodle belonged to a sister-in-law of the woman living in the house. The occupant had been trying to get this sister-in-law (who lives “somewhere in Oklahoma” ) to come and get the dog for a week. The sergeant had tried to call the owner several times with no answer. He was going to try to call the dog’s owner a couple more times and then he’d need to move onto other matters. If the owner wasn’t reached, or didn’t return his calls, he figured we could keep the dog.

Meanwhile, during our sometimes quiet and relaxing Christmas day visiting, the four of us all had become attached to the little black fur-ball. She came out of her shell after only a few hours, comfortable around us, our dogs and cats. We took turns holding her; for my sister, Mary, the little dog reminded her of a poodle they had early in their marriage named Tiger. By the end of the visit, Mary was telling Susan they’d take the dog if it became available.

So, was it coincidence that this little dog came into our lives on Christmas Eve, the day before seeing the relatives that had a poodle years ago and that they were in a position to take another dog? I think not. Maybe this was a Christmas miracle for this little dog that needed a new home so she wouldn’t have to sleep outside again.

Meanwhile, after the company went home, we beheld our living room; furniture uncovered, nativity scene on the piano, small lighted Christmas tree in the corner. Beautiful; a view we’ve not seen in the ten years we’ve lived here.

Once or twice each year, we uncover the furniture and piano in our house-gone-to-the-dogs.

Now, we’ve said good-bye to all of that. Our furniture is covered again, as well as the piano. The nativity scene has been packed away and the dogs, are back in “their” house. So, it was good-bye couch, good-bye chair and good-bye piano. We’ll see you again someday when we have company coming for a holiday. As for the little black bundle of poodle fur, we’ll say good-bye to her when we deliver her to her new Leon farm home next Thursday on our way to Wichita.

Good-Bye for a few months.  Couch, chairs and piano covered and house reverted to dog use.