PET Peeve

First off let me start by saying that I am not trying to offend anyone. I am one of millions who love animals and would take them all in if I could, but letting dogs and cats run loose or dumped in the city on a busy street is a pet peeve that I just can not understand. Don't get me wrong I have picked up a few strays and found out who the belonged to and took them home. I am sure that I will pick up a few more in my life. As a matter of fact I have two myself one is Shadow and the other is my 16 year old cat Lucky. But when my dogs are in there own fenced in yard minding there own business and a stray dog or cat comes along well I get a little peeved.

This past Saturday my two dogs Shadow and Kayla were out side barking away at who knows what so I went to check it out and what I saw just made a knot in my stomach. There was a large dog running around in my neighbors back yard. Now the thing is Shadow is quite the protective type of dog and he has been attacked by two dogs before so you can pretty much visualize what was in my head and that is not what I wanted to happen. I was in no mood to go to the hospital myself or take the dogs to the emergency vets for being hurt. I went outside and without making a sound (can you believe that) I went up and grabbed Shadow's collar. I walked him back to the house hoping that Kayla was a good girl and follow I turned around after I let Shadow in the house and saw that Kayla was following along. I had no sooner shut the back door and the dog jumped over my fence and into my yard. Well I called animal controls emergency number (well what I thought was there number) only to find out that I had called our local police dept. I have done this before when I had no water so I called the emergency number on the back of my water bill which turned out to be the local police dept. A lesson learned is that I know that you do not call any local emergency number on any of my bills because I will get my local police Dept. This is what I would call a brain fart. LOL The dispatcher was very nice and did put the call to animal control for me. Well I did see them out looking. But they did not see anything. I thought I was safe so my two wanted out again, I did let them out one at a time to do there business as I stood guard. I know sooner come back in closed the door and the dog was back in my yard again. I called and left a message with animal control. They called me back 30 minutes later and said is the dog still in my yard, well no it was not. I told the gal on the phone my concern was that there are young kids and smaller dogs in this area and that not knowing the dog or the temperament I was concerned for everyone and all of the dogs safety. I live by a very busy street so I did not want the dog to get hit either. After the third time of seeing and having the unwanted friend in my yard I was at the Animal controls mercy. I know they can't stand outside my house looking for a dog, but I watched for over 2 hours and it kept coming back. I called back animal control to see if any one else had called missing the dog or seeing it but no one ever did. By the time it was starting to get dark I got a little bit more nervous. Now I had to deal with my black dog and the stray dog being a dark color and what light I did have coming from my back porch light I was scared I must say. I stood guard when ever my two were out but did not see our new visitor. The dog has not come back I checked off and on yesterday as my dogs were outside and never saw it.

Now I know a few of you are asking why did you not pick up the dog? Well I had gone out side and peeked around my house as the dog was in the neighbors back yard barking and when it saw me it stated to bark at me. I am not afraid of any dog large or small and I am not afraid of any particular breed of dog either but my inner voice was telling me that this dog was confused, scared and lost. The light when on in my head and said do not bother, this is not a good sign to go after this dog. I am sure that this dog was nice just like mine are, but there comes a time that you have to admit that your dog and yes even mine can do harm.

I know that the other question is why did I even bother calling Animal control? Well I look at it this way. This is someones pet I would hope that if my two got out that someone would be kind enough to pick them up or call animal control. I also do not want to see any ones dog or cat hit by a car.

I try to be a very responsible pet owner myself all of my babies have also been fixed. I know that most people are taking care of there animals but that few that just do not care are why I get peeved.

Again I do want to say that I do love all dogs and cats. I do know that it is not there fault they are running loose or dumped. They are such angels and do not deserve to be treated the way they are and again I wish I could have them all.

As a happy ending to my story no one went to the hospital. I do hope that the sweet vistor did find her way home.

Bear hugs and puppy kisses,
Sheryl