The great dog chase…
It started out as a normal Monday. I was on my way to a meeting and stopped to pick up a friend and her daughters. When I walked up to the house, she and the girls were in the front yard in total panic. “The dog got out!” they yelled.
I was puzzled. “So put him in and let’s go,” I thought. Then I spotted the dog, racing down the road at top speed away from us.
“So how do you usually catch him?” I asked.
“That’s the problem,” she responded. “We get in the van and start driving. He will follow the van. We drive around the block several times with him chasing after us until he gets tired. Then we can catch him. But we can’t do that today. The van doesn’t work.”
“Would he follow my car with you in it?”
“Maybe.”
So began the 45 minute long attempt to catch the hyper boxer-type dog. We followed him to a school. He followed us back to the house. Then he turned up a side street and took a detour through a muddy ditch. He headed back toward the house.
Another panic ensued. “Oh, no! There’s the mailman.”
“Does he bite the mailman?”
“No, but the mailman is afraid of him and calls the police.”
Sure enough within three minutes two police cars arrived to find the dog circling the mail truck, barking loudly and the dog’s owner and her daughters with their leash still trying desperately to catch him. The two policemen jumped from their vehicles brandishing poles with nooses on the end and cans of pepper spray. “Stand back,” they shouted. You would have thought that they were a swat team after an escaped criminal rather than a hyper, barking dog. After several squirts of pepper spray, the dog apparently decided he was better off in his own yard. He ran over and stood by the house and allowed himself to be leashed up. I had to go on to my meeting at that point. The last I saw was the policemen writing a ticket to the dejected dog owner.
Evidently this was not the first time this scene had played out. The dog and the mailman were old enemies. And the small beach city Police Department was enriching its coffers at the expense of a family who could ill afford it.
In my adjoining metropolis, a dog without a leash could wander through a neighborhood with no owner in sight for days without a police presence showing up. Guess those beaches policemen don’t have anything better to do. Nice for them. Bad the the dog’s owner who had to pay a $55.00 fine.
I was puzzled. “So put him in and let’s go,” I thought. Then I spotted the dog, racing down the road at top speed away from us.
“So how do you usually catch him?” I asked.
“That’s the problem,” she responded. “We get in the van and start driving. He will follow the van. We drive around the block several times with him chasing after us until he gets tired. Then we can catch him. But we can’t do that today. The van doesn’t work.”
“Would he follow my car with you in it?”
“Maybe.”
So began the 45 minute long attempt to catch the hyper boxer-type dog. We followed him to a school. He followed us back to the house. Then he turned up a side street and took a detour through a muddy ditch. He headed back toward the house.
Another panic ensued. “Oh, no! There’s the mailman.”
“Does he bite the mailman?”
“No, but the mailman is afraid of him and calls the police.”
Sure enough within three minutes two police cars arrived to find the dog circling the mail truck, barking loudly and the dog’s owner and her daughters with their leash still trying desperately to catch him. The two policemen jumped from their vehicles brandishing poles with nooses on the end and cans of pepper spray. “Stand back,” they shouted. You would have thought that they were a swat team after an escaped criminal rather than a hyper, barking dog. After several squirts of pepper spray, the dog apparently decided he was better off in his own yard. He ran over and stood by the house and allowed himself to be leashed up. I had to go on to my meeting at that point. The last I saw was the policemen writing a ticket to the dejected dog owner.
Evidently this was not the first time this scene had played out. The dog and the mailman were old enemies. And the small beach city Police Department was enriching its coffers at the expense of a family who could ill afford it.
In my adjoining metropolis, a dog without a leash could wander through a neighborhood with no owner in sight for days without a police presence showing up. Guess those beaches policemen don’t have anything better to do. Nice for them. Bad the the dog’s owner who had to pay a $55.00 fine.