Is man dog's best friend?

Last night Franny and I stumbled upon a stranded canine compadre.

She was about 10 blocks from our house, attached to a 30' long leash with a broken hook at the end. Not much larger than Franny, but with much shorter legs and more salt than pepper fur, she was probably enjoying her bout of freedom until her leash decided to wrap itself around a gas meter several times, all but condemning her to an evening of intimacy with a cast steel contraption.

Until we stumbled upon her.

She was friendly and relatively calm considering the 9-month old schnoodle at the end of my leash that was yelping and performing all 3 acts of Cirque de Soleil in her face.

I surveyed the situation and figured it was too late to go knocking on doors (10:40 p.m. in my small town means that most of the townsfolk have turned off Jay Leno and gone to bed) to find the pooches owner. So Franny and I escorted the well behaved terrier mix home, gave her some kibble and water, a soft mat to sleep on, with the promise of deliverance on the morrow.

After breakfast this morning, PK and I led the stray pooch back to the scene of the crime, figuring to ding-dong some doors in an attempt to locate a home that was missing it's dog. I was feeling pretty good about our chances of finding at least some neighbor who would recognize the pooch and point us in the right direction.

Decent plan. Human intellect at work. Elementary, my dear.

However, as we approached the gas meter in question, the dog started pulling on the leash, which, until that point, hadn't been an issue. I stopped her for a second, did a couple turns in order to disorient her, but again, she immediately started pulling in a specific westerly direction.

For half a block, she pulled us on her own personal iditarod, until we found ourselves in front of what had to be her home. I took a chance, let her off the leash and watched gleefully as she pounced around the front yard, ran around the back, and through a doggy door into the garage.

Human intellect indeed. Had I just turned her loose last night, she would have ran straight for home and not have had to spend the night with strangers.

Well, at least she might have a little more appreciation for home, cuz nothing makes you miss home more than being away from it.