The last we left off, JJ and I were on our way home from animal control and I was torturing myself. Did I just make the right decision?
When we pulled into our neighborhood, there was a house a few down from us that had its lights on. Now, earlier when we had been going door to door no one had answered at that house. We decided to stop by and ask them if they had lost a dog.
We rang the doorbell and waited a few seconds. An overweight man opened the door and he was not wearing a shirt (GROSS!). He didn't look very friendly but I put a smile on my face and asked him if he had a dog that was missing. We told him we found a small, tan dog running around the neighborhood. He answered, "We have a dog but I don't know if he got out. Let me see if he is in our yard." I was confused because the dog we had found was a female. I was also irritated that this family got home and didn't even check on their pets. I know I may be a bit odd but I really look forward to seeing my Piper when I get home. The first thing I do is let her out and play with her. She makes my evening so much better!
So the man opens his back door and whistles. He waits a minute, closes the door and says, "Well he's not out there so maybe it was mine." I told him that the dog we had found was a female and he thought that maybe it wasn't his dog after all. I described the dog again including details about the color of her collar. After we talked for a bit we were pretty sure it was his dog. I told him that we had brought her to animal control and that he could pick her up there.
His answer? Was it "Oh thank you so much! We can't wait to go get her?" Hell no. His reply was, "Well we are just going to leave her there. We have been trying to get rid of her for a while and no one will take her." I was stunned. I stood there for a moment completely speechless. I explained to him that there was a chance that they would put her to sleep. He said, "Oh really? Well she just won't stay in our yard and she tried to bite my son once so we just really don't want her." (Side note: after spending a couple of days with her, there is NO WAY she would try to bite someone unless she was playing or extremely scared. In fact, there were times when she was with me that she was extremely scared and NEVER tried to bite me. He was lying.)
I was beyond furious. What kind of person gets a dog, throws it in the back yard, doesn't check on it when he comes home, and doesn't even know the sex of the dog? I snapped at him and told him that I would take care of her. There was no way I would let her be put to sleep. Thank goodness JJ was there or else I would have taken a swing at the guy and he was way to big for me to attempt that! I stomped out of his house and we went home. I took a shower and cried. I cried for the poor little girl that was stuck in animal control. I cried for the life she must have had. Now, I realize that there are situations that would be much worse. I don't think the man ever hit her. But her collar was too tight and she was very skinny. She was not socialized and was not used to other dogs or people. That, in my opinion, is not how a dog should live. Also, I want to say that I don't have a problem with people who keep dogs outside. There are some dogs that really enjoy that. I prefer for my dogs to be living inside by my side. I think that is best for me and my dogs.
After taking a shower (and crying some more) JJ and I decided we would go back to animal control the next day to see if we could pick her up. I would start calling around to try to find her a home. I figured we would make a few phone calls and this whole thing would be over. I am an idiot...
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Lexy's Story: Part 1
I have been meaning to share this story with you guys for so long! The weekend before Thanksgiving, JJ and I took our dog, Piper, for a walk. It was a chilly evening so we were wrapped up in sweatshirts and coats. We started walking down our street and got about 5 houses away when this little brown dog came running out from the side of a house. She was really excited and wanted to come up to us but was too scared to get really close. I knelt down and talked to her. She built up enough courage to come see me and I checked to see if she had any tags. She had a collar on (that was waaaay too tight) but had no tags. Immediately I was irritated. I cannot stand dog owners who are irresponsible. It is not that difficult to make sure your dog has tags!
Anyway, so we stood there for a while not sure what to do. She was running around like crazy and I was terrified she was going to get hit by a car. JJ and I decided to walk up and down the street and ask some of the neighbors if they knew who she belonged to. Most of them had no idea. One of them said they had seen her running around all day but didn't know who she belonged to. (OK am I the only one who worries about a dog running around? I don't think I could see a little dog running around and just not do anything about it!) We talked to this really sweet, retired couple that lives right by us and they said they had seen her another time too and knew that she lived near by. We kept ringing door bells and no one knew who the owner was! I was so frustrated.
We decided to take her back to our house and put her in the garage. I didn't want to bring her in our house because she was covered in poop (she had apparently found some poop and decided it would be fun to roll in it) and I didn't know if she had anything that Piper could catch and get sick. I didn't want to leave her in the garage though because it was so cold and I didn't want the owners to come home and not know where she was. We decided to call animal control.
JJ called around 6:15 and told them what was going on. They were really rude to JJ and told him that since they were closing at 7:00 they would not come pick her up even though we only lived about 20 minutes from them (REALLY? Isn't that your JOB?). If we wanted to bring her over to them we could do that. We talked about it and kept going back and forth. What should we do??? We decided to go ahead and take her. By this time it was about 6:40 so we had to haul some major butt to get there on time. We arrived at 7:05 and ran up to the door. Locked. We drove to the side and rang a bell. A man answered and JJ explained what had happened. The man refused to take her because they closed at 7:00. (I was about to lose it at that point. Why are some people so against helping someone out? Yes, I understand you don't get paid overtime but does that mean you turn us away when we are just trying to do the right thing?) The man told us that two of the animal control trucks went out to pick up an aggressive dog and should be back any minute. We could wait for them if we wanted to.
So we sat and waited. And waited. And waited. We gave up. Who knew how long they would be? We decided to head home. We got about a mile away from animal control when we passed the animal control trucks. We flipped a u-turn and sped back! We once again explained the situation and these guys were MUCH nicer. They said they would hold on to her for 5 days and if no one claimed her they would either put her up for adoption or put her to sleep. I begged them to please call us (even though I knew I would be calling them every single day) before they did anything! They scanned her for a chip and said she did not have one. Then they took her back.
The entire way home I was second guessing our decision. Did we do the right thing? She seemed so scared! What do we do next?
Little did we know, this story was no where near being over. At the end of the story, we would come to realize how incredibly cruel and horrible some people can be and how our lives would never be the same...
Anyway, so we stood there for a while not sure what to do. She was running around like crazy and I was terrified she was going to get hit by a car. JJ and I decided to walk up and down the street and ask some of the neighbors if they knew who she belonged to. Most of them had no idea. One of them said they had seen her running around all day but didn't know who she belonged to. (OK am I the only one who worries about a dog running around? I don't think I could see a little dog running around and just not do anything about it!) We talked to this really sweet, retired couple that lives right by us and they said they had seen her another time too and knew that she lived near by. We kept ringing door bells and no one knew who the owner was! I was so frustrated.
We decided to take her back to our house and put her in the garage. I didn't want to bring her in our house because she was covered in poop (she had apparently found some poop and decided it would be fun to roll in it) and I didn't know if she had anything that Piper could catch and get sick. I didn't want to leave her in the garage though because it was so cold and I didn't want the owners to come home and not know where she was. We decided to call animal control.
JJ called around 6:15 and told them what was going on. They were really rude to JJ and told him that since they were closing at 7:00 they would not come pick her up even though we only lived about 20 minutes from them (REALLY? Isn't that your JOB?). If we wanted to bring her over to them we could do that. We talked about it and kept going back and forth. What should we do??? We decided to go ahead and take her. By this time it was about 6:40 so we had to haul some major butt to get there on time. We arrived at 7:05 and ran up to the door. Locked. We drove to the side and rang a bell. A man answered and JJ explained what had happened. The man refused to take her because they closed at 7:00. (I was about to lose it at that point. Why are some people so against helping someone out? Yes, I understand you don't get paid overtime but does that mean you turn us away when we are just trying to do the right thing?) The man told us that two of the animal control trucks went out to pick up an aggressive dog and should be back any minute. We could wait for them if we wanted to.
So we sat and waited. And waited. And waited. We gave up. Who knew how long they would be? We decided to head home. We got about a mile away from animal control when we passed the animal control trucks. We flipped a u-turn and sped back! We once again explained the situation and these guys were MUCH nicer. They said they would hold on to her for 5 days and if no one claimed her they would either put her up for adoption or put her to sleep. I begged them to please call us (even though I knew I would be calling them every single day) before they did anything! They scanned her for a chip and said she did not have one. Then they took her back.
The entire way home I was second guessing our decision. Did we do the right thing? She seemed so scared! What do we do next?
Little did we know, this story was no where near being over. At the end of the story, we would come to realize how incredibly cruel and horrible some people can be and how our lives would never be the same...
Monday, February 1, 2010
Top Secret
I don't know if I have mentioned this before but me and my husband work at the same company. I absolutely LOVE this because I get to see and talk to him much more than most working couples get to see their partner, but it is not so much that I get sick of him. I work in HR and he is an engineer that works a couple of floors above me so I don't run into him around the building.
Our company has a instant messenger so we can send each other quick messages if we need something or we can chat if we are both low on work to do. If there are company events, we can go and everyone knows both of us!
We can also car pool most days which I adore. I love riding into work with him listening to the radio and talking. Or driving home for lunch with him while we listen to Rush Limbaugh (whom I love so no negative comments please!). At the end of the day we workout together because our company has a free gym for employees. All in all, it is a wonderful situation.
JJ works on a lot of projects that are "top secret" so he can't share anything about them with me. He has told me how past girlfriends would get upset because they felt he was keeping things from them. I however, think it is so sexy! My husband works on top secret projects! Hell yeah! The only time that it sucks is when he is really excited about some project and he can't tell me about it. I am so proud of my hubby!
Yeah, sorry for this totally mushy and braggy post. :)
Our company has a instant messenger so we can send each other quick messages if we need something or we can chat if we are both low on work to do. If there are company events, we can go and everyone knows both of us!
We can also car pool most days which I adore. I love riding into work with him listening to the radio and talking. Or driving home for lunch with him while we listen to Rush Limbaugh (whom I love so no negative comments please!). At the end of the day we workout together because our company has a free gym for employees. All in all, it is a wonderful situation.
JJ works on a lot of projects that are "top secret" so he can't share anything about them with me. He has told me how past girlfriends would get upset because they felt he was keeping things from them. I however, think it is so sexy! My husband works on top secret projects! Hell yeah! The only time that it sucks is when he is really excited about some project and he can't tell me about it. I am so proud of my hubby!
Yeah, sorry for this totally mushy and braggy post. :)
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