Husband and I always say in passing "man, I miss having dog..." but we both work so much and live in such a small house currently. We really don't have the time or space for a dog.

Well... this boy apparently found his way to our house overnight. He's been hiding out under our porch ever since. So, his pictures have gone to our county animal shelter in hopes that they post him and someone recognizes him and is missing him. If that doesn't work, I'm going to try loading him into the car and taking him 30 miles to the vet to get him scanned in hopes that he has a chip. But, we live way out in the middle of nowhere where most people don't chip their animals and they all run loose. We're really hoping that someone didn't just dump him way out here... but, regardless, he has a home with us if we can't find his people. The dog isn't making it any easier because when I ask him "where are your people, bud?", he just stares up at me with his big old eyes and doesn't say a word.

aw! Keep us updated. At least the puppy has a good home, even if you don't find his people.

Hea beautiful. I kind of hope you keep him as he'd have a fab home as you're clearly caring

Updated: nobody has come forward recognizing him from the picture the county shelter was kind enough to post for me. Nobody has called or texted me from the little signs I have posted at the Tractor Supply and feed store. The techs at the vet's office didn't recognize him and they couldn't find a chip. So, if he's still here next weekend, he's mine.

He got a collar yesterday because he has no concept of how to walk on a leash (found that out when I was trying to load him into my car with a harness and a horse lead...) and hubby brought out his old dog's dog house to try to convince him that there are better places to stay than under our porch. But, he's terrified of being shut in the yard, so we've been trying to make it nice in there for him, but aren't closing the gate so he doesn't panic. Sadly, under the porch is his safe space... that also has no fence between him and the road. So, I'm shopping for x pens or something similar that I can run from the corner of the house around the porch and to the fence to fence off the porch. I'm so worried that he's going to get more comfortable and make his way onto the road. If he stays, he's going to have to be an outside dog, at least for a little while (we do live in the Deep South where dogs are outside pets and don't live in the house, but my Yankee butt is working on convincing hubby that, maybe after my cat passes away from old age in a few years, dog could have a dog door and have free choice of inside or outside as a middle ground... but there's time for that later).

But, we're currently mulling over name ideas. Any suggestions are welcome because we are thoroughly stumped of what we might call this boy.

In his new collar... still in his safe space under the porch...

And we got him to realize the dog house is kind of nice... except he was back under the porch this morning... *sigh*

the poor baby! Sounds like maybe he doesn't have any people (or at least not any for a long time). Hopefully with time and love he'll come around.

He's such an enigma of a pup. He goes from sweet and loving and just wanting to practically crawl inside you to completely shut down and hiding in seconds... with no discernable trigger. Like, last night I was sitting in the yard with him trying to make it a cool place and he was climbing all over me in typical puppy fashion. Hubby came out and tried to give him a couple pieces of kibble and he ended up crawling behind a bush and wouldn't come out for 20 minutes. And he isn't normally scare of hubby either... like he greets him every morning when he leaves for work. But, apparently something was too much. After he came out from under the bush, he was right back to being a sweet, bouncy pup and that's when I ended up convincing him the kennel wasn't going to eat him and he ended up laying down in it. Like a light switch in the poor little dude's brain. There isn't a mean bone in his body, but I just can't grasp what is going on inside his brain.

I'm thinking that perhaps whoever owned him before was mean to him, and he's still learning that you guys are good people who won't treat him the same way.

You described yourself as a Yankee. So perhaps "Doodle", "Macaroni" or "Dandy" as a name? lol

Thankfully, he doesn't have any physical scars. But, someone has definitely done a number on his poor mind. He's just scared out of his wits. I have to keep reminding myself that he hasn't even been here a whole week and I know he's going to be an AWESOME dog whenever he fully settles in. I just wish I could figure out what he was thinking to help things make sense to him. 

I like Mac from Macaroni as Kuwait suggested -- or our neighbors used to have a pair of strays named Lost and Found, respectively. But they were kind of odd dogs, and he looks like he needs a more personable name than that. :) Love his coloring. Reminds me of a yellow lab. 

What a sweet boi. He's so lucky to have found you guys ^^

He's definitely some type of lab mix. Depending what angle you look at him, you can see a hound face or a bully face. I would love to get him Embark tested if we keep him just to see what we actually have. Regardless, he's 100% good pupper. 

So... he's staying. He's gotten a name. (If you've ever watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, I'm sure you remember Uncle Iroh. And now we just need to get him not terrified of walking on a leash so that he can go to the vet and get caught up on all the vaccines and preventatives that I'm sure he's missed. (Getting him scanned for a chip involved having the techs come to my car because I walked in alone and they told me to bring him in which garnered a response of "ummm... he won't get out of the car..."). He's still very nervous and panicky, but I'm sure with more time and love, he's going to be an amazing dog. I don't know if he'll ever be the type to take out to public places because he's just so easily overwhelmed and scared, but no matter what, he's going to be a good dog.

Sweet boy

Daww

See if they offer "fear free" meds for visits. Some places it's hard because normally you need to have a doctor/patient relationship estabished for prescriptions but on a rare occassion my vets worked with some owners/pets that there was no way to get them into the office without help. All the new things are stressful but I'm so glad y'all have given him a chance!

I think you should keep him, even if the owners come for him, they didnt treat him well so dont let them have him back, hes meant for you  

So, he's really starting to come out of his shell... at least with me. I had to rush the "you're getting locked in the yard" situation after he chased my car up the road when I went to run errands on my day off this week. I was trying to let him get used to the yard slowly, but unfortunately being on the road is a huge risk that I just can't have, so we had to jump in the deep end. But, after a day, he was fully settled in and calm again there. He's a super smart boy who has figured out how to walk on a leash without panicking when he feels pressure (at least in the yard; we still have to try other places, but that will happen when we have a better fitting collar) and has a pretty nice recall (again, at least with me in the yard). We still need to work on loading in and out of the car and interacting with new people. Unfortunately, my husband is on his shutdown at work (you'd think that meant time off, but it means the total opposite... 12 hour days 7 days a week for about 3 weeks) so it's really just me working with him for now. I may have to recruit some family to intrudce some new people and work on getting him more comfortable with that idea.