It cold! I don’t envy the things that construction in this part of the country has to be ready for. In August, we topped out at 101°F and just five months later it’s -10°F. Somehow still cozy. Not too bad for wood and old newspapers.

Friday, we saw a little dog doing laps through the alley behind our house several times throughout the day. We eventually determined it didn’t have a person attached and set out on a rescue mission. After about 15 minutes of searching the neighborhood, another 30 of gentle coaxing, and a tactical pincer maneuver, we managed to lure them into our garage to check for a tag or a microchip (thanks Flipper Zero).

Fast forward to this evening, when we finally got word that the little critter had both a name (Coco!) and a family, who they had been successfully reunited with!

Everything that happened in between those two bullets is deeply frustrating. Trust that many mental notes have been made about the various public and private entities who failed us monumentally as we tried to help a small creature that couldn’t help himself on a cold night. Every step of the way, the most obvious thing to do was made either needlessly complicated or impossible. I honestly don’t know what other people do in situations like this.

Godspeed, Coco ❤️. May this weekend’s odyssey be the entertaining anecdote you tell all the other dogs at the park for the rest of your long, happy life.