Hobo Sam

Last week when I was running at lunchtime, I came across an old dog tied to a fence with an old shoelace.  There was another person there with him - a woman who was walking her dog stumbled across him a few moments before me and called Animal Control while I petted him.  He was so friendly and I felt so badly leaving him to go back to work.  When I told Lee the story, he told me to keep an out for the dog on the Hartford pound's website.  I contacted the pound the next day and for a couple of days, we tried to set up an appointment to meet him.  We (Lee, Elizabeth, Elliot and I) were finally able to meet him on Monday afternoon and we thought that he was a sweetie.
His story is an interesting one.  He is microchipped and the chip traces back to upstate New York.  The ACO contacted the owner last Tuesday afternoon and didn't receive a return call until Friday evening; and while the owner cried about how much she loved him and missed him and how wonderful he is, she wasn't interested in coming to get him.  Indeed, she had no idea how he could have gotten from Syracuse to Hartford....She did provide the ACO with some information about the dog, although we have reason to believe that almost everything she said, except for his name (Baxter - which he clearly answers to), was false.  The ACO believes that he was living with a group of homeless people in Hartford and that when they discovered that he had an ear infection, they tied him to the fence in a well-traveled area so that the someone would find him and the ear infection could be treated.  Under city ordinances, however, a dog picked up by AC must be adopted within ten days of entering the pound or be put to sleep.  Lee picked up Baxter on Wednesday afternoon, just a few hours before he would have been put to sleep.  Baxter visited our vet, where he got a clean bill of health, and the groomer (where he got a much needed bath!) on Thursday morning and is settling into his new life in the Cloverhood.  He has a ton of energy (which we are not used to), but is a very good boy.
About the title of this post....given his "story", but before we knew his name, Lee wanted to name him Hobo; I wanted to name him Sam; and Elizabeth wanted to name him Samuel, for Samuel Adams (the revolutionary, not the beer); and Emily could only think of girl names.  The girls and I decided that we would call him Hobo Sam.  And then we found out that his name was Baxter.  So Baxter it is.

Mr. Adorable 

Emily loves her doggies. 

Baxter settled in nicely on the couch, like he owns the place. 

Pals 

Emily couldn't be more in love....