Thanks everyone. I still can't believe he's really here. I got up at least three times last night just to pet him. He's exhausted. Delta has never slept through a whole night inside before. He was even snoring last night!
His girlfriend is Lady. She's a sweet little lab mix. It was her owner who called me on Thursday. She roams around a bit during the day when her owner is home. A couple days before she had brought Delta home with her from one of her wanderings. She let him stay and shared her food with him. I left all the extra treats I had for her last night. Her owner refused to accept the reward money we were offering. Today I went I bought a gift certificate for the local pet store for Lady and another one to a nice restaurant for her owners.
I also bought a certificate at the pet store for another man on that road. Delta was in his yard yesterday and he let me tromp around on his property for awhile. He even brought me out some raw bacon to try and tempt him with. He has two dogs so I bought them some treats and a gift certificate too.
Dot: I caught him by doing a couple of things. I never walked directly towards him. I came around at an angle. Always with treats in my hand. If he started to move away from me, I either froze on the spot or backed away myself. I let Antare go to the length of the flexi leash so they could sniff each other safely occasionally. The rest of the time I kept Antare very close to me. Lady was eating out of my hand. Delta will sometimes do what the other dogs do so I wanted him to see that the others weren't afraid of me. A couple times he took a treat from my hand and I made no move for his collar. I was pretty sure he was only going to give me one chance so I wanted to make sure I could get him without freaking him out any further.
We have a routine at home where when I want to pet him, I tell him to find a safe place. So I kept whispering to him to find a safe place. After about three hours, he started sitting beside me just out of my reach. Later he moved away on to a pile of snow and laid down. Usually when he lays down that means he's ready to let me handle him. So that was when I moved in for him--slowly and quietly. I had a leash in my pocket. I put that on his collar and then tied it around my arm. He wouldn't walk to the truck so I secured Antare and carried Delta over. He never moved from the front seat where I put him down.
He's keeping his food down today. Last night he puked up everything he ate. I've given him a couple small meals today and that seems to be working. He's laying on a comforter watching me type right now. He's been out in the yard most of the day playing with his buddies. Everyone seemed to remember him and there haven't been any issues there.
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(Thanks for the siggys bri!)
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