I'm so happy I went walking today. And I'm even happier that Beth and I went walking together. It's always more fun exercising with a friend! We shared great conversation, she introduced me to a beautiful trail fairly close to the apartment complex, and I don't know what I would have done without her when we ran into a big surprise heading home!

We planned to meet at ten o' clock this morning. I kept waking up fearing my alarm wouldn't go off. I had it set for 9:30, but at 9:15, I'd already woken up about five or six times, so I just got up. I couldn't find any of my sweatshirts at first, so I considered wearing my jean jacket. Then, I found my Best Friends Animal Sanctuary sweatshirt and wore that instead. You know, it's kind of amazing (sad?) how unprepared I am for exercising as far as supplies go. My water bottle strap is missing. I have no exercise pants and only one pair of exercise shorts. None of my sweatshirts have pockets. I don't have a light hoodie jacket that would be perfect for exercising. I absolutely have to carry water with me, and I also like carrying my phone with me in case of emergency, so pockets are a must. Today, I just threw all my stuff into my purse and wore that across my back. I guess it wasn't bad, really.

It was really great seeing Beth and Vic! Beth and I immediately fell into conversation, as we tend to do whenever we're together. It was fun! And soon, we were on the trail. I was surprised at how close (and beautiful) it is! It's very quiet, even though it's parallel to a busy road. It's set back far enough so that all you hear is the wind and the rustle of leaves blowing in the trees. Speaking of trees, all the ones around here are becoming more and more amazing, covered in various shades of vibrant yellows and reds. It looks like I'll have to take my camera along on these walks from now on!

We walked on the trail, chatting away, until Beth said about me, "I'm detecting rosy cheeks!" I said the same about her! We picked a turn-around point up ahead and once we hit it, began walking back towards the park. We stopped in there and let Vic play, climbing all over the kiddie playhouse thing, sliding down slides and generally having a blast! I couldn't resist going down one of the slides myself. What a cute little park!

Victor was getting sleepy and it was time for his nap, so Beth got Vic back in the stroller and we all headed back towards the trail. Right next to it, we were surprised to see two puppies playing! We looked around but didn't see any people near them. One lady was behind us with her little kid in a stroller, so Beth asked if they were her dogs. She shook her head no. One of the puppies looked over at me, a brown Siberian Huskie with a beautiful white face. I squatted down and said in a high, excited voice, "Puppy! Puppypuppypuppy!!" And the little dog ran right over, bounding towards me on his tiny puppy legs. I held him by the collar and inspected it for information about him. There was a tag that read "Coco," with a phone number underneath. Beth held him while I got my phone out and called his owner. I got the machine, so I left a message. After I hung up, I said, "Okay, well, now I'm committed!" And I thought, wow, I hope they call back soon, because I don't know what I'll do with these dogs if I have to watch them for hours and hours!

I got a hold of the little Beagle puppy, but the only tag on her collar was the one for her Rabies vaccination. We let go of the hyper puppies, but decided to keep an eye on them. They were playing in a wood pile, so I went over to watch them while Beth checked the park to see if the owners were in there. No luck. Then the puppies started running closer to Beth so I did a little jog through some mud to catch up to them. Puppies are fast! A man was in the park trying to help us, which was cool. Then the puppies scared all of us by darting towards the busy road!! The man worried me even more by chasing the dogs, trying to catch them. And, well, that's just not the right action to take, because these puppies (as any puppy would) seemed to think, "WOO HOO! A game! Chase me! Chase me!" Yeah, INTO traffic!! Yikes. Luckily, the man stopped chasing them so much, or he got on the other side of them or something. I'm not quite sure what happened to change their course, but I was relieved to see the puppies running back in my direction. Beth and I ran around trying to herd the dogs as though we were part of some strange rodeo event, both of us still calling them, amazed at their lack of training! They had very poor recall!

We caught Coco first. Beth unclipped her purse strap from her purse, which I thought was very clever! I unclipped mine, too. Hers was completely detachable, but mine only unclipped on one end. The other end attaches to the purse itself. We used my whole purse as a leash for Coco. It looked really funny! Then Beth hung onto Coco and stayed with Victor, while the man and I attempted to catch the Beagle. He said he'd try to chase her over to me, but instead, he was able to catch her and pick her up and hand her over to me. As I began to attach Beth's purse strap to this puppy's collar, the man made me laugh by asking, "You just happened to have a leash on you??" Heh. Nope, we're just quick thinkers!

The scariest part was over! Now that the dogs were on-leash, I felt much, much better. The man took off to finish his morning jog and wished us well. "You're doing a very good deed for the day!" he told me. The other mom with the stroller we'd seen earlier was sitting on the swing with her kid, and encouraged us, happy to see our progress so far.

Beth helped me keep the puppies still enough to call the veterinary hospital's number on the Beagle's collar. I gave a description of the pups and the serial number on the tag, as Beth read it off to me. The girl at the hospital told me she would look up the information for me and call me back. Only a few minutes later, she called and told me that yes, these two dogs are together, and that she'd contact all the numbers she had for the owners, and give them my cell number. "Great, thank you!" I said.

Thinking that might take a while, Beth and I decided to walk back to our apartment complex. We had the dogs on leash (though the Beagle was decidedly more upset by this than Coco), so we could walk them back, wait outside with them, and the owners could meet us there. Well, as we were heading back toward the trail, my phone rang again and this time it was Kathy, the owner of the puppies! Her voice was a mixture of worry and gratitude. "Thank you so, so much for holding onto them!" she said. "I keep thinking I've covered all the holes in our backyard, but they must be finding one I haven't seen yet. I'll have to really look for it. Okay, so where are you now?"

I gave her the name of the park and she said she'd be there in two minutes. "Bring leashes!" I told her. At first I thought she'd be heading down the trail, so we waited there a few minutes, petting the dogs and receiving lots of puppy kisses. Then I realized she must be driving, so we walked back towards the actual park (the parking lot is on the opposite side of the park from the trail). Soon, we saw a blonde mom and daughter, waving at us. As they approached, Kathy began thanking us all over again. "You're so nice! Thank you for holding onto them! I'm so glad you found them!"

"Oh you're welcome!" I said.

I had been carrying little Beagle, who clearly hates the leash, so as I began to set her back down, Kathy got worried. "Don't let her go," she said. "Someone found her before and let her down and--"

"We have her leashed!" Beth and I told her at the same time.

Beth told her about my work with dogs at the humane society and with petsitting.

"Your dogs are really sweet," I said. "So hey, if you ever need a dogsitter, please feel free to call me!" I know, plugging myself for work at a time like this... But hey, if it meant a chance to see them again, I figured I'd throw it out there! Okay, fine, I'm a dork.

The daugter latched her leash onto the Beagle, saying, "Come here, Minnie! Come on, hold still."

Beth and I were both happy to finally know her name!

Once Minnie was leashed, I unhooked Beth's purse strap. Then they hooked Coco's leash to his collar and unhooked my purse from him. Kathy thanked us some more before we all wished each other well, and they headed off.

I felt so great! Beth and Vic and I all headed back to the trail (again!) to finally walk home. I am so happy it worked out so well, so easily, so quickly. I was worried I wouldn't be able to find the owners, or that the dog's tags had outdated numbers, or that they wouldn't get the message for DAYS. Lots of stuff could have gone wrong. But everything was fine and the puppies are back with their people!

I took out my cell phone and looked at incoming calls. I recognized the one at the top as Kathy's number, so I thought the one below it must be the veterinary hospital. I called it, and I'd guessed correctly. I told the girl at the hospital who I was and thanked her for her help. "...And the dogs are back with their people now. They just came and got them!"

"Oh, thank you SO much for doing that. Thank you for taking care of them and watching after them and calling us! They just got them but those dogs mean the world to that family! Thank you!" the girl said emphatically.

"You're welcome. I was happy to do it!" I said.

"Thank you! Have a great day, bye!"

"You too! Bye!"

Beth and I talked and laughed about the whole experience, replaying various details. We also talked about how tired we were, because not only did we go for a long walk, we got a workout chasing those dogs around too! My sweatshirt looked like I'd gone marathon running in the mud and rain!

Instead, I had just spent the morning with a friend who feels as I do -- that you can't just walk away from lost puppies! You have to help them get back home, if you can.

Sometimes these stories don't work out so great. I'm so happy this one did. And I can think of a family who's got to be pretty happy about it, too!

I love how this whole experience brought smiles and laughter to so many people: Beth, Victor (when the puppies said hello to him), me, the family, the vet hospital, the man who helped us and the woman who cheered us on. It just goes to show that even in a crisis, there is one undeniable truth in life: Puppies bring happiness with them wherever they go (and destruction and mischief, but let's focus on the happiness, shall we?).

Good luck, Coco and Minnie! Stay home, will ya? And Happy Holidays!