10 May 2000 sad   » (Journeyer)

April's Big Adventure

Wow, so interesting stuff does actually happen to me! Tigger is my five year old Golden Retriever. While walking her Tuesday morning I saw a black lab running around the park. Her name was April. . I saw a man on the phone standing there. I asked him if it was his dog. He said no, and there didn't seem to be an owner around. He had a cell phone so he called the Humane Society of Ottawa Carleton, and asked them what we should do. After explaining the situation, the voice on the other end of the phone said to call the bylaw people, curtly gave him the number, and hung up!

What could we do? She had no tags; we couldn't call her owners or walk her home. We couldn't just leave her there. We were afraid that she'd get hit by a car, or worse. So he tied her to the bench. He went to work. I went inside.

Now, this was the same dog that had escaped a few nights before at 10:00 pm. She was running around, happy as you please. We were having the same debate, when the owner showed up, called her, and brought her home. From what I caught of the conversation, her name was April, she was in heat, (thus her need to escape), and she'd somehow gotten out of her yard. I didn't catch the name of the owner, or where she lived. But I knew this was not a stray; someone would be out looking for her, probably after they got home from work that night.

Fast forward to Tuesday morning. I had gone inside, and I had these terrible pangs of guilt. So I went back out, untied her, and brought her inside. I put her in my laundry room. It's a small room, about 8"x6", and it was a good place for her to stay. It's tiled, so any clean up that I might need to do when I got home would be relatively easy. So I shut her up inside, and left for work.

When I got home that evening, I happened to see Linda and her husband Guy. Linda walks dogs during the daytime, so I figured she might know someone who lost a dog. I asked her. Her reply: "YES!" I must say, I've never heard anyone say "yes" quite as excitely.

So, I brought April and Tigger out, and Guy walked April home. I learned later that half a dozen people had been out searching for her all day. I felt kinda bad, but everyone agreed that it was better than letting her get hit by a car, or letting the bylaw officers take her. All's well that ends well.

The one thing that really pisses me off about this whole incident is the response of the Humane Society. Passing the buck. Well, thank you very much! I seeth every time I think about this. What is the point of actually having a humane society if they don't do anything? I wouldn't mind if they had said, "Sorry, we can't pick her up, you'll have to just bring her in." Or even if they'd given me more information, but no; they were totally useless. As Andrew says, "People should rely upon people first".

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