Karma Kept the Flooding to a Minimum
Sep 7th, 2007 by Alex
After the minor flooding incident on Thursday night, I hauled out two buckets of water to dump into the street. As I was about to pour them out I saw a beagle scampering up the road towards me without an owner in tow. I got down, put my hands out, and called the dog over. Most animals take to me immediately. It caught me by surprise because it looked just like my friends’ beagle. I got ahold of the collar and called my buddy over with a Maglite to check her tags. Annie. She responded instantly to her name and calmed down a bit, sitting when asked.We were trying to see if there was an address and phone number on the tags, but she was so full of energy. She wouldn’t stay still, just kept trying to smell and lick everything. It took my buddy cradling the dog and holding the tags and me with the Maglite to read/dial the number.
It rang a lot and went to voicemail. I left a message.
I don’t have a dog and didn’t have anywhere safe to keep her, so I went back inside to find something to use as a leash. I had lots of CAT-5 cable, but the sheathing is plastic and the conductors are laced with copper; I wash my hands after handling it and I didn’t want her nibbling on it. I found a length of sheathed aircraft cable with loops on the end and looped it around a tree out front. Plenty of slack for her to explore around the driveway and see what we were doing without getting in the way. I didn’t like tying her up, but I live near a busy street and I was hoping the owner would call back in a bit. Nothing would suck more than saying “yeah, I found your dog but she got away and got hit by a car.”
Annie was panting. She had clearly been outside for a while. The house water was off at this point, but I grabbed a bowl and filled it with the last of the water in the Brita pitcher and brought it down for her. She calmed down a bit more and lapped at it furiously.
We were still waiting for the space around the water heater to dry out. My buddy was soldering some of the connectors on the new copper lines, so after wrestling with her some more to try to read the address on the tags I went inside and found the house on Google Maps. Turns out Annie had made it four blocks from home. I decided to walk her down and see if her family was in.
I was about halfway there when my phone rang. I told the woman that I’d found her dog and that I was on my way to them. We met a block later. Their cell had been inside while they were running up and down their street. They went inside to get it as they were about ready to get in the car. Nice people.
I’m pretty sure that karma was responsible for the lack of water during the second a half of the hot water heater replacement.
