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So we left at 9:15 pm on Friday night, we took my car, which has no cruise control, but at least it had a full tank of gas. Called the ‘rents, told them we were on our way, and proceeded to spend the next 5 hours talking about anything and nothing at all, which is rare—we hardly ever have an opportunity to talk for hours on end, so if nothing else comes out of this, at least we got to do that.

We got to san jose around 2:30 am, my mother had already made up the inflatable mattress in my old room with lots of blankets since jozjozjoz gets a frozen nose if the room dips below 70 degrees, but we had to re-inflate the sucker since the plug popped out. But no matter, we were soon snoring away.

My parents had very good intentions about the whole “find Rusty” thing, but he’s really MY dog. My dad said he’d post signs and walk around the neighborhood, but he works full time and so by Saturday, had only the opportunity to post a sign on the tree in front of our house. And they didn’t really think that we needed to go to san jose to do all the stuff, but again, he’s MY dog.

Saturday morning we printed out the flyer and went to make copies, buy a staple gun (cuz you know, i can’t have a project and not have a new tool to make the job that much more fun!) and a tape gun, and began the slow process of posting flyers all over the neighborhood. I think we papered over 150 light posts/signal posts/telephone posts and stuffed over 250 mailboxes.

Jozjozjoz, being the more social of the two of us (or the one who can approach a complete stranger and not become catatonic over it) talked to a lot of my parents’ neighbors, store managers, and regular people and wasn’t phased by the rudeness of 14 year old boys, crazy homeowners against ‘solicitors’ and those people who haven’t seen your dog, but who will tell you of every other dog they’ve seen in the neighborhood over the last three years.

My method, by the way, of approaching a stranger’s door:

Ring doorbell. Resist the urge to ditch.

Wait until i hear footsteps in the hallway, or someone peeks through the curtains to see me, holding a folder of paper. Immediately say, “No, don’t worry, I’m not a solicitor!”

If they come to the door, I hold the picture of my dog out and say, “you haven’t happened to have seen a very small dog running around the neighborhood? He’s very old, and deaf, and kind of looks like a dark brown cotton ball.”

Wait for the smattering of “awwwws” or “oh nos!” i don’t know if it’s just that they’re staring at the picture and not listening to me, or if i’m not very clear when i speak, but everyone thinks he’s a puppy.

Confirm that they haven’t seen the dog, but will call if they do, and then walk to the next house.

We spent 3 hours papering the neighborhood and then went to the humane society of silicon valley to check out the dogs they’d picked up in the last few days. Unfortunately, the resources aren’t available for a no-kill shelter, so unless you go every other day, you run the risk of having your dog get picked up and then get euthanized because there is no space to keep them. I understand that they keep dogs that have a better chance of being adopted (young, no health issues, good temperament, etc.), but Rusty is 14. and deaf. And not trained so well. So i’ve half a mind to take a drive every other day. But that’s one hell of a commute. I’ve already put 1,200 miles on my car in the last 2 weeks, with thanksgiving and this past weekend.

Anyway, we went to dinner after the humane society visit (which, this time, wasn’t as depressing as it had been previously), and then to Kinko’s to make more copies of flyers, and then back out to post some more. Out til 11pm posting signs, covering about 4 square miles of territory. So how come i don’t feel as if we did enough?

And then, of course, it rained this morning. Winter storm. The whole friggin state of California is in the rain.