Our new "friend" Zoe

This morning I met some friends at the park for play group. The kids were having a good time, but it began to rain a little so we decided it would be best to just continue the playing at my house. We all packed up and headed to the cars. When we got to the parking lot there was a dog wandering around. It was basically leaving us alone. We wondered if it was a nice dog and commented on how pretty it was, but just kept going to our cars.


I headed to my car and unlocked the drivers side door. I opened it up and then turned to get Josh. (I was standing right by the door and only turned for 1 second)
When I turned back around the big pretty dog was in my car. I was a little startled because I did not think it was even near my car. I stepped away from the door and tried to call it out of the car. Not knowing if the dog was nice or not I was not about to stick my hand in there. Instead of coming out of the car it just moved to the back seat and sat between the boys car seats. It was barley sprinkling but I think it was trying to get out of the rain.


I opened up all of the car doors and continued to try to get the dog out. My friend Shelby had a bologna sandwich so she tried offering it the bologna. The dog was not interested. It just stayed in the car panting and drooling.

At this point I decided to risk my hand and try to read the dogs tags. I let the dog sniff my hand until I felt it was safe to pet it. I began petting it and telling it I was going to look at the tags. (which meant sticking my hand right under his mouth.) The dog was very friendly and had no problem letting me see the tags. In fact during the whole experience the dog was very calm and friendly. It did not even bark once. The dogs name was Zoe and it only lived a few blocks away.

I called the owner but they did not answer their phone and their voice mail was full. By then a few more people had come over to try to help get the dog out. Both of them did not have children with them and were willing to drive the dog home. The problem was that Zoe liked my car and was not getting out.

I decided I would just drive Zoe home and hopefully she would get out when she saw her house. I transferred the car seats to Shelby's van so the boys could ride with her. as soon as I took Joe's car seat out Zoe laid down and made herself comfortable.
Josh did not like the idea of going in someone elses car so I decided to let him ride with me. I know that might have been a bad decision, but like I said Zoe was calm and very friendly towards me so I figured it would be OK. She did not even move when I put Josh in his seat.

Josh cried at first but by the time we got to Zoe's house Josh thought having a dog ride in the car was pretty great. Zoe was very content the whole ride home. She sat up to look out the window and almost looked like she was smiling because she had gotten away with her trick.
I could tell Zoe recognized her house, but she still did not want to get out. The owner was not home, but I found a neighbor at home. He helped me get her out.

This whole experience was pretty funny, and now thinking about it, I probably would have been OK just reaching in and pulling Zoe out. But the other three adults were not going to risk their hands why should I?