Tales from Creekistan

Now I Feel Like A Heel

As readers of my blog may know, I occasionally have to deal with stray or dumped dogs appearing on my doorstep. I can't believe that some people--rather than deal with unwanted puppies, old dogs, or random strays--would drive to the middle of nowhere (aka Creekistan) and just leave these dogs. Cats too. I've dealt with several such homeless potential pets that I've become a little hardened to it. I would love to take all of these animals into our home and hearts, but we simply can't.

The most recent story is of Red, a young adult mutt that almost found a home here. It started out as this wild dog appearing in the distance to play with my dog. The two dogs seemed to get a long. Eventually, Red warmed up to me and allowed me to examine him. He seemed okay to me, and we even discussed keeping him. He was a mix of a lot of things, including German Sheppherd, Lab, and possibly Pit. The Pit gave me pause. But he seemed really nice and even knew how to sit and give me his paw. Yep, someone abandoned him.

But Red fought and injured Bandit, probably over food. Any funds that might have been used to neuter Red were utilized to hospitalize our beloved Bandit. That was it for Red. I tied him up and called the Dog Warden on Monday. I called the Dog Warden on Tuesday. I called the Dog Warden on Wednesday before I went to the vet to get Bandit out of the "hospital." I had to keep Bandit in the house 24/7 in order to keep him away from Red as well as nurse him back to health. Red, in the meantime, started to think that he was ours. He started to protect the house and bark whenever someone came to visit. But he was too intimidating.

I called every day, trying to sound frustrated, sad and pathetic about having to be stuck with this stupid dog and why isn't someone coming out to get this dog that attacked my dog?

Finally on Friday the Dog Warden came and got Red. I felt bad--the kids watched as Red, tail between his legs and fighting the entire time, was taken away and put into a truck to go to one of the worst dog pounds in the state. But I was mad, too, that it took five days. The dog warden apologized profusely, and I even gave him a can of Coke, but our interaction was brief.

Then, on Saturday, I saw the headline of the weekend paper:"Dog warden injured avoiding dog." Seems that the dog warden was driving down the road and had an accident trying to avoid a stray on the road. Well, that explains why he was late. Now I feel like a heel.