last night, while we were hanging outside on our porch we noticed a collarless dog go running down the road - fearing for it, we all got our shoes on and followed it.
we spent about an hour and a half trying to get it to let us touch it. a sniff of our hands before running off was as close as it'd get. we followed it as it was walking the streets, trying to make sure any cars that came by slowed, since it wouldn't come to our calls.
eventually we gave up and decided that it didn't want to be caught, and it didn't want to be touched, so, after giving it some treats over the hour or so we were out there we decided to turn home. but it decided to follow us.
when we reached our yard she wouldn't come in. she noticed it as an enclosed space and wouldn't come in. so, we left some food for her on the steps and let her be.
and we thought that was gonna be the end of things but nope!
we were thinkin about that dog all day and, right as me and my partner were about to go on a walk with our own dog someone from Doctor's Without Borders knocked on our door asking for a donation. we let him give his whole spiel and gave a little bit of money, and he ended the conversation by being like
"hey there's a dog walking around the neighborhood. a little white dog. have you seen that?" and we explained the story to him before saying our goodbyes. and then we went venturing for that dog again.
we found him at a neighbor's house, someone we hadn't talked to before. he was friendly and asked if the dog was ours. we said no, but that we were trying to catch it. he offered to help, offered to let us use the enclosed space of his backyard for a few hours to try to catch the dog. (when we tried the dog escaped through the tiniest of crevices in the fence)
we met another man on a bike who was offering to help and rode around with us.
eventually, after following the dog around the neighborhood again, someone showed up who said it was their friends dog, and the dog, who was too skittish to let us touch it really basically ran right up to him.
it was *quite* an adventure, but i'm just glad the doggy is safe.