The Hobbes Dilemma

No, it's not the latest screen adaptation of a Robert Ludlum novel.

Hobbes is a free-range dog who hangs out in Penny and Mark's yard; has for years. They don't feed him or really encourage him in any way to stick around, other than just being kind to him and providing him a couple of other dogs to play with. They even once enlisted York County Animal Control to try to capture him, at the insistence of Penny's sister Melissa. Hobbes is blind in one eye, and upon being surprised by Melissa's little boy Taylor, snapped in defense at the perceived threat. But Hobbes could not be caught. He's too wily for that. If you've not heard the story, you must hear it from Penny and Mark - it's a classic Keystone Cops tale.

Someone else in the neighborhood feeds Hobbes regularly, but he's not close to her. He's not close to anyone, for that matter. He's always on the perimeter, very rarely venturing forward for a reluctant session of human contact, usually resulting in a doggy grimace that suggests, "I really shouldn't be doing this and I don't really like it!"

Anyway, in the last few months, due to his advancing age, our familiarity, or both; he has become more accessible. He buddies up to Steve on a fairly regular basis, and on Thanksgiving, he allowed me to scratch his ears and nuzzle up to him for a couple of minutes.

Okay, so this is the dilemma. As a veterinary professional, I would love to slip a collar and lead on him and take him in for a vet visit. Get him fully checked out, vaccinated and neutered. Bring him to my house so he never has to sleep outside in the freezing cold again.

But the other side of me knows he's a loner, and has been all his life. Maybe that's not what's best for Hobbes in a spiritual sense, not really what he would want if he could talk and tell me. I just don't know. I just know he's touched me with his independence and will to survive and live on his terms.