I'm saying "him" now, but at the time it was pretty darn hard to tell his gender.  He's a cocker spaniel, and all his fur was so densely matted that I thought he had some horrendous skin tumors.  His ears, belly, groin, and "armpits" were heavy with the bulbous appendages.  He also had a huge sweeling in his eye, an angry red blob.  Sweet and affectionate, but dispirited, he had on only a choke chain.  No collar, no tags.

The mats of fur were more than the scissors could handle; we had to get the heavy duty shears after him.  He struggled and squirmed but we got most of the clumps off, and he was much, much livelier afterward.  His haircut was disastrous, chopped locks all over, but now it was apparent he was much younger than at first suspected.

I went round the neighborhood with him, to see if anybody knew the dog, but nobody did.  We hadn't decided what to do with him up until last night.  We knew what we weren't doing.  We weren't taking him to the pound, and we weren't turning him over to someone who would neglect him so badly, provided the owner would even show up.  There is a two pet limit on our post, so we couldn't keep him without booting one of our own dogs, another non-happener.

Right now I am in the van, cutting our way through Virginia, on toward Mississippi.  Copper, as we came to call him, is in the farthest back seat, sleeping.

Copper gets carsick.  It's been so long since I've encountered a carsick canine that I hadn't prepared adequately.  Hadn't laid newspaper all around.  The possibility hadn't even occurred to me.

Copper is going to live with my mom.  She's been looking for a small agreeable dog, and she'd give him a helluva lot better care than what he's gotten so far.

Are we doing the right thing?  Taking a dog we don't own several states away to hand him off to somebody else?  Probably not.  Probably completely wrong.

He's a good dog.  Calm, sweet, charming.  I think it's ok to do the wrong thing, if it means doing right by him.