“Look what followed me home!” said Mason last night, pointing at the chihuahua nipping at his heels. “I was riding my bike around the block and he followed me all the way here! Can we keep him? Can we keep him?”

I explained to the children that we could not keep the dog, as it belonged to someone else. “There are no wild chihuahuas,” I said. “It’s someone else’s pet.”

“But he’s starving! Just look how skinny he is!” they whined.

“It’s a chihuahua. That’s what chihuahuas look like,” I said.

Susan informed me that the 7-11 outside my neighborhood is, apparently, the designated posting area for lost dog posters. (I missed that tidbit in the homeowner’s Meet and Greet.) While Mason and Susan stayed behind to watch over the dog, Morgan and I drove up to 7-11 to see if anyone had reported the dog missing. While we found two posters for lost dogs (and one for a found cat), none were of the chihuahua. After mentioning what we were doing, one employee offered us pertinent information.

“There’s been a lost chihuahua poster in the window for two weeks. We finally threw it away,” she said.

I returned home to find a pet carrier with bedding for the dog, two types of food (wet and dry), and a water bowl.

I dropped off Morgan, picked up Mason, and drove two laps around the neighborhood looking for the dog’s owner. I had hoped to find someone outside yelling for a dog, but didn’t.

When we went to bed last night, there was a chihuahua sleeping on our front porch. When we woke up this morning, he was still there.

“Good morning, Choo-Choo!” the kids said. Great. They’ve named it. Unfortunately for the kids (and fortunately for me), “Choo-Choo” took off at some point during the day. Hopefully he made it back home safely. The kids are keeping an eye out the front window, just in case “Choo-Choo” comes back to visit.