Meet Piddlestix

Sometimes you have to expect the unexpected. It was a windy and chilly November day when my mom, the kids and I returned from a shopping trip. Upon getting out of the car, my mom notices something near the corner of the garage.

"What's that?" she says. "What do you mean? What's what?" I asked.

She points to the garage and sure enough this little fuzzy headed dog was poking his head around the corner. I got out of the car to investigate. It was some small sort of poodle looking thing. I tried calling to it, but it ran laps around the house.

Upon the third lap it must've decided it was cold and hungry because I opened the front door and it shot inside the house. Ok, not an ideal situation. Strange dog in house. The kids stayed with Grandma out in the car for a few minutes.

I was able to catch the dog and noticed it was very emaciated. It was also a he with no collar and remnants of fuchsia nail polish on his toenails. No wonder he ran away I thought.

We called around to the neighbors and asked if they knew of anyone missing a dog. I also posted an add at the local feed store. Found out the neighbors had seen a vehicle with a lady and that dog drive down the dirt road near our house on hunting opener. They also said they've seen the dog running around for days now and had put food out in their garage hoping to catch it.

For some reason the dog seemed like he chose us. Maybe he liked our other dogs, maybe he was sick of running. Whatever the reason, he and my two year old daughter seemed to get along right from the start. By the second day he was here she called him, "My puppy." Funny thing is, she was afraid of dogs until then.

My husband Alan was pretty certain the dog had been dumped at our place. Kind of a hazard of living on a farm. We debated what to call him, I wanted Milo but he came up with Fiddlesticks because the dog was so thin and it looked like his legs were literally pencil sticks.

Our four year old son suggested Piddles, because the mutt had a few accidents in the house. Al suggested Piddlestix and what do ya know, the name stuck. How could you say no to that? It was silly and true at the same time.

As for my daughter and Piddlestix, over a month later they are still buddies. We all remember how he came running through our front door just days before her second birthday.