Gotta go, Dutch

I had initially intended to let Dutchie stay with me through the weekend and into early next week (to give the owners a decent window in which to re-claim her), but she had two altercations with my cats within 24 hours of her arrival on Friday. Even though Dutchie started it by chasing after them, I decided to be nice to her and let her stay in the house during the day instead of being stuck outside or alone in the guest house (she goes bonkers and gets destructive when left alone too long); this means my kitties have been the ones stuck behind a closed door. After two days of this arrangement and seeing how unhappy my babies are, I just can't take it anymore. It's not fair to my kitties to keep a dog here who chases them and barks at them, especially when the dog is only here as a favor to her own little self! No one claiming to be Dutchie's owner has come forward since Brad and I put up the posters on Thursday, so this morning I contacted the Valley Dog Rescue group and spoke to the director, who told me to bring Dutchie to PetsMart this afternoon because they would be there as part of an adoption event. I like this organization (and organizations similar to them) because they house adoptable dogs in foster homes instead of cages, and there's no risk of them being euthanized. Plus, they hold newly surrendered pets for 7-10 days and continue searching for the owners before officially putting them up for adoption, which gives Dutchie's owner more time to find her and get her back (if they want to, that is. It has been brought to my attention that she may have been set loose on purpose, given that no one appears to be looking for her. It's also possible she was stolen, which means we have no idea where she came from).
So now I'm back to just Shadow, who barely blinks at the cats when they venture out of hiding to come glare at him reproachfully. My hope is that, with yippie Dutchie gone, they'll rediscover some of their bravado. I miss my kitty babies, and I admit it'll be nice when it's just the 3 of us again. I like dogs just fine, but my heart belongs to those little feline furballs.