Yesterday on the daily walk with Maggie, we stumbled into this little pup down at the Prim’s house.

Smaller than Kitten (my little old cat) & about the size of Moo-Moo’s head, the pup was casually walking along our path.

She/He (we can’t be sure) wasn’t too afraid of Maggie, but hesitated coming any closer than the 6 feet in front of us.

Very friendly, seemingly sweet-natured, very dirty & obviously some level of sick just looking at that right eye.

I’ve never seen the pup before. I looked around to see if an owner was close by – nothing, no one.

Maggie, of course, wanted to play so badly that our normal “sit-stay” routine for meeting new dogs wasn’t working.

Anytime I got a foot or two away she’d try to run up to the pup…and the pup would scoot back a good four feet.

So I tossed the pup a dog treat from my pocket & Maggie and I went on our way.

I told myself that this little pup’s fur seemed to have been trimmed not too, too long ago – that he/she must live around here somewhere.

And we didn’t see the pup again….until this morning.

Eric came home from PT & told me the pup was outside. He crawled back in bed…I crawled out. I couldn’t stop thinking about the pup.

I decided to give him/her some food & try to get a better look at that eye.

The pup was still out front & when I sat the bowl down and sat down next to it, the pup walked straight up to me, crawled in my lap & buried his/her head into my leg.

And the pup stayed there. Not moving for a good 5 minutes while I pet him/her.

The pup was thin – I could easily feel the spine. The eye was discharging & had matted up the fur all around it – making it that much harder to see out of.

I sat there for a good 15 – 20 minutes, trying to figure out what to do.

If I was home in the states, I could scoop up this little pup, take it immediately into a vet to see what diseases or infections it had & if everything was good or treatable – without impacting Maggie – I would take the pup home.

But there aren’t any vets here – at least none that I’ve found. The only vet I  know of is at Osan Air Base & you have to make an appointment that’s a good week out.

And the Osan Vet Clinic is constantly sending out emails alerting us not to buy dogs from the locals because of all the illnesses that the dog inevitably has & that no amount of money or treatment usually works.

I finally decided to pick him/her up & take it inside to at least wash out that eye & the fur around it.

Maggie was sound asleep on the bed with Eric & I never put the pup down just to be safe.

When I had cleaned the pup’s eyes off I steeled myself to take the dog back outside.

I think that’s one of the hardest things I’ve done in a good while. Every ounce in my being was telling me to bring the dog inside, quarantine him/her in a spare bedroom & make an appointment with Osan.

But I didn’t – I kept thinking of Maggie & how much I didn’t want her to get sick….and I walked back inside.