Ready, Aim, Fire?

Scouter, Scouter, Scouter. What can I say about Scouter? So many wonderful things -- he's unique, hopeful, smart and gentle.

After commiting to transporting my previous charge, Rocky The Raucous, I was tapped for a transport the very next day for my usual transporting group, headed by Jen Daley. So, on Sunday, March 6th, I set off without Carol this time, to meet Jen in Morgantown, where I was to pick up Scouter, whom Jen had personally saved from a dreadful fate in West Virginia.


Jen had warned me that Scouter was a bit smelly from being in the kennel for so long, but that he was fairly well-behaved in the car and spent much of his time with his face right in yours. It was then I learned his breath wasn't so great either. When they arrived, Jen took Scouter for a little walk. He headed straight for a pole, lifted his leg appropriately, and peed. All was well -- until he took a few more steps and lifted his leg again, ready, aim, fire -- onto Jen's leg! At that very moment, I wondered if Jen was so happy about personally rescuing Scouter from WV! She called him a "toad" and rinsed her jeans leg off with water from his water bowl I'd set down. You just never know what you're going to get from these poor dogs, who have been neglected and have gone without training most of their lives. But Jen seemed to take this mostly in stride, and soon Scouter was sitting in the passenger seat of my car, ready to see the sights. Perhaps he got his temporary name of Scouter because he was intent on scouting out the scenery.

Although Scouter never really settled down during our ride, he seemed curious about everything that either we sped past, or that whizzed by us (pardon my reference to "whiz"). I got the feeling that a lot of what he saw during our hour-long ride was brand new to him. He sat or stood on the seat the entire time. He either looked out the windshield, out the door window, at the back of the seat (go figure), or at me. He seemed especially interested in the trucks that roared past us.

When we reached our destination at Animal Lifeline, Laura from the rescue group who was taking Scouter in, was there to meet us. I could tell she loves dogs. She embraced him immediately, so I quickly warned her of Scouter's faux paus committed against Jen earlier. It didn't faze Laura, and we agreed that Scouter would probably learn better manners quickly, and would make someone a great pet. I think perhaps a better name for him would have been "Shooter", but hopefully whoever his new owner is will never know about this little episode, and will name him Spot, or Fido or Fred.