Querido and I found this little guy wandering onto 7th Avenue yesterday. We stopped, herded him out of harm’s way (with help from an undercover cop) and got him into the car (with help from a jogger with some string in his pocket). No collar, no chip (as we later learned).

Trying to find a shelter that would take him was ridiculously difficult. The Arizona Animal Welfare League and SPCA can’t take animals that haven’t already been at another shelter. The Arizona Humane Society doesn’t open until nine, and, as we discovered when we got there,they normally don’t take stray dogs. Luckily (?), the county shelter doesn’t take strays at all on Wednesdays, so they agreed to take him and check him out until he could go to the County.

It breaks my heart that he’s in any shelter–he was the perfect size to nestle into the crook of my arm, did so quite happily. He quietly, if not willingly, submitted to being taken in and out of the car, and into the shelter, and being surrounded by many strange people. If I had sole discretion over adding pets to my house, and Stella wasn’t so bad with other animals, I don’t know that I could have given him up.

If he’s yours, or you can give him a good home, call up the Maricopa County Animal Control shelter at 602-506-7387 to save him.