The world is totally effed up
We're going to call him Brutus for now.
Near my house is a rather sizeable park, and enclose within the park is a zoo. At the exit of the park, there is a bridge that gaps into a backdoor enclosed exit to the zoo, and from the looks of it, the exit hasn't been used in a quite some time. It's a remote part of the park that I like to walk my dog along, partially because it is remote and partially because the steep incline leading up to it is good for me and the dog to take once in a while.
Friday night around 530 I get home from work and walk Asia over to the park and up to the bridge. Tied off on the fence where it opens into the zoo, on the park side, is Brutus. I have Asia with me, so that limits what I can do at that point. I finish my walk with her, and decide to drive over back to the spot with a couple bowls, some food and some water, a toy and an extra leash. Brutus is still there. It was obvious when I walked up to him that he wasn't just left there for a couple minutes. He had been tied there at least half an hour that I had personally seen, and had no nametag. His leash was tied off tightly, and the harness that held him was loose fitting at best. Near him was a torn bag of bread, and true story, a bottle of poland springs. The bread bag was empty, and I assume they left a half bag of bread for him to eat, or it was just garbage that he was conveniently left near.
I approached him with a couple pieces of food in hand, to check his temperament. He was scared, but on closer inspection he was grossly underfed/malnourished (I wouldn't define him as emaciated, but that's a minor distinction for an animal who has been there for who-knows-how-long). Fairly quickly the need for food overcame most of the sense of fear he had, and when I put the food on the ground he ate it quickly. He then "warmed up" and slid over to me, thankful for the couple pieces. Seeing he wasn't violent or overprotective of his food, I poured him a bowl of food and big bowl of water, both of which he quickly went to town on. During his feeding frenzy, I called animal control- closed. Call public safety during off hours. Ok, sure, call public safety. No problem, we'll get somebody out as soon as we can, it's busy. So I wait a little over an hour, sitting there giving the dog more water and what food I had left (I wish I had brought more with me). Still nobody came. Called again. Got told again that it was busy, that somebody would be by, but animal control was closed for the weekend so it would take some doing. Waited another hour plus. During this time, his leash came undone. I had been standing next to him and he was a clinger- sitting by my side the entire time, trying to jump up on me a couple times, but typically just sitting there trying to be about as close as he could to what was obviously the only friend he had in the world at that moment. I realized a couple things- He was more underfed than I originally thought. Not emaciated still, but his hind side was sinful thin. His nails were completely unkept for quite a while, and were long, damaged, and dirty. He smelled generally bad, but not repulsive from a distance, and his teeth were in good condition, one of the few good signs. His disposition was sweet and submissive, and he got up the courage a couple times to bark at a couple passerbys. Not ferocious, just a general protective bark, and not particularly forceful. Probably still very weak. Then, his leash came undone from the fence while he was fiddling around back and forth. He didn't move very far, and definitely didn't move fast at all. I grabbed the leash, and took him for a little walk to relieve himself, which he did away from where I fed him. Another good sign. While I noticed before that his back side was having a little trouble moving around, and while he was trying to jump up on me he was very tenative, it was walking him that I really took notice that he had something more than just "weak" wrong with his back legs or hip. He wasn't limping or favoring a leg, but he was moving very gingerly on both feet and wouldn't move much above a snails pace. It occured to me during the time I was with him that he did alot of "dragging" and moving along without his legs, although he wasn't afraid to stand when the mood hit him. I would call it a moderate problem with his legs. He didn't look physically abused, no apparent signs of beating, cuts, and he wasn't squeamish to the touch except when I went to look at his legs, when he would lay down in a super submissive position with his legs away from my body, as if to beg not to go near them (so I didn't).
After nobody came, I decided that nobody would be, and I sure as hell wasn't just going to leave him there, so I hatched out how to handle it. I would load him into the car, set up asia's cage in my garage (he is little more than half of asia's size) so he would have room to move in the cage even with food and water dish in it. By keeping him in the garage, he would be sheltered albeit alone in the dark, but protected, and asia and the cat in the house would be more or less not as wise to him. He was super reluctant at being picked up, definitely cause of his backside, but I got him in the car, and while he obviously wasn't a fan of being put in the crate, he couldn't fight much with his back legs. I spent a little more time with him before I went to dinner with friends, trying to get back to normalcy and not being able to help the situation anymore at that point. At dinner, I got a call from public safety and explained to them that after two and a half hours of not showing up, and only then calling me about 4 hours after the fact, that I had the dog at my place and would gladly meet them there. The woman changed her tone from a little insolent to almost apologetic, saying that I should call at 8am on saturday morning to the same number, and that they would send someone out.
I call saturday morning at 805 after setting my alarm clock. The new woman at the number was now 10 times as insolent as the other lady. Animal Control is closed. We don't send anyone out unless the animal is injured or dead. There is no way. I'm asking the lady, what are the options then, am I just supposed to keep an animal with bum legs in my garage until they "open for business?" She changes her tone when I mention Brutus has something wrong with his back legs, and says if he is injured that she'll send an officer out to assess the situation, that she hopes I wasn't lying, why didn't I tell the lady last night he was injured, w/e. A kindly officer came out about 40 minutes later and he sorta pushed that the animal wasn't in dire straits injured, but was not a completely healthy dog, and says how it's awful that paying someone overtime is a shit reason to have someone trying to do something nice is stuck with a hurt dog in the garage. Bless this guy, even if he was a little callous. He left without giving an indication of if someone was coming for certain or not, but there was nothing else he could do and they'd call "if" someone was coming out. during that time wondering, I tried to weigh other options, and the only other one I could come up with was to take the poor thing to the shelter I had adopted Asia from- They treated her very well from what I gathered, and they have had a couple "special needs" animals there. I waited, if animal control didn't show up at 1 I was going to pack this dog up and drive him an hour to danbury to beg for them to take him, and maybe offer to cover some of his vet bill. Animal Control did show up, probably around 1030 in the morning, and while the guy was pleasant, he wasn't very forthcoming. I explained to him how I found the dog, his disposition, how he behaved, basically everything I could about dog ownership, but I got the distinct feeling he wasn't listening.
He took Brutus, which was a bit of a relief, but then I got it in my head that maybe a bridgeport ct animal control facility wasn't the best place for an injured dog. Now I'm concerned that first, they are closed so I can't find out answers to my questions, but I don't know whether they are the type of place that will euthanize an injured animal (despite him obviously being "special needs" for injured legs, he was sweet, approachable, and maybe even fixable). Now I'm sitting here grossly concerned for his well-being, specifically if they will kill him or not. I dont' want to be responsible for that. I don't really have the resources right now, specifically time, to take in another dog, and the fact that he may be special needs makes that an almost definite, but I can't bear to think about the situation I may have put the dog in. I'm going to be spending alot of time on the phone at work tommorow seeing about whether bridgeport ct animal control will euthanize dogs, what rights are there for people who find abandoned animals, and seeing if I can find a more hospitable environment for "Brutus," namely the place I adopted Asia from. I've got a little bit of spare money, where I would donate 100$ in a heartbeat to have Brutus checked out and get him a nicer bed (he had no interest in toys) and maybe some nicer food, but more importantly get him to a place that will find him a good home instead of a state-prison for dogs.
On top of all this, I'm furious somebody would do this to a dog, basically leave him to his own fate and to the hopeful kindness of others or just leave him for dead. I AM FURIOUS. Give this animal a chance, leave him at an animal control, find a shelter, make an attempt. There are people out there at least willing to try and help. If given the opportunity, I'd like to leave every single person who does something like this out for dead, to go fend for themselves to see if somebody out there might be willing to help them. It wouldn't be me.
I hope above all hope I didn't send poor Brutus to his death sentence. I feel like I really fucked up, almost as bad as the monster who abandoned him. I will be spending tommorow trying to make right with the house.
I'm a nervous wreck
