Dear Friends, On Saturday I found an unneutered adult male German Shepard running down the road in front of my house. It looked like he had broken his chain but it was actually a huge, heavy clip that evidently attached his choke collar to his chain; it was so heavy that when he ran it hit him in the knee and made him appear to limp. I caught him and he had no tags. He had big lesions on his rump and rear legs that I thought might be mange or ringworm (I'm so snake-bitten with this damned ringworm, if I see any patch of missing fur, I immediately figure it's ringworm!). I was on the way to take my mother out (she doesn't drive) so I just put him in the car and went to pick her up. I was concerned that he needed to go to the vet, and it being the Saturday of a holiday weekend it didn't even occur to me to call animal control; they're a useless bunch of a-holes, anyway. So, I stopped at the vet, got a leash and once that big clip thing wasn't hitting him in the knee, it seemed like he was walking allright. I asked if they could check him out since I had to make arrangements to board him until Tuesday when I could call animal control to see if anyone had reported him missing. We did some errands and then went home and sat on the porch until it was time to go to the vet. My mail carrier said she didn't recognize him from any of the homes on her route, but that she'd ask around. The vet determined that he was underweight, the lesions were hotspots that were starting to heal, and that he struck her as a 'chain' dog; one that is just pretty much permanently tied outside. His coat was dirty and he had some mats here and there. I called my sister, who just lost her Shepard, Abby, several weeks ago and she was happy to have him stay with her for the weekend. We tested him for heartworm and lyme and gave him a rabies and distemper shot and off we went for him to spend the weekend in the country. This dog was very mellow and a really great animal who loved attention. My sister came to meet us in the driveway and he just loved her; she had him playing with balls and running around the yard in no time. We were all feeling really great about the whole thing and kind of hoping that nobody did claim him because they would have gladly given him a forever home. My cellphone rang and my husband was calling to say that he'd been called into work and when he left he found a business card stuck in the front door and someone had written 'have you seen my shepard, Viper?' (Nice name, huh?). Janice, our mailcarrier, had made a connection......
So, I was upset about the choke collar to begin with and the general condition of the dog and considered just ignorning it and saying, yes, I had the dog at one time but it got away from me, and I really wish I had. I called this guy and he was a total a-hole; never asked me how the dog was, is he ok, etc. Wanted to tell me some long story of how he's spent $150 on chain and the dog keeps breaking it. I broke in and said well, why isn't he neutered?, and he sort of chuckles and gives me the lame 'it's a guy thing....wouldn't want that done to me' (yeah, like you even have a set) so, I persist and say that it's in the best interest of the dog, etc. and he's just being a jerk. So, I said, Ok, who's his regular vet? doesn't have one....so, I tell him what treatment he'd had and he says, well, I find it a little unusual that you would do that (get treatment) for a dog that you'd only had a few hours. I said I had no way of knowing if the dog had an owner or not and I did what I felt was right and frankly that I found it unusual that he'd react in this way to someone who was caring for the animal. So, I said, well, I did what I did of my own free will, but since you do own him do you want to split the vet bill? Well, as you might imagine, things went farther downhill from there. He got snottier and I got bitchier, told him it was illegal to have a dog not current on rabies shots, accused him of not even having the dog licensed and finally I hung up on him. I called animal control and the sub-normal humanoid who runs it, verified that this guy had called to report his dog missing. So, I give him the whole story of what a jerk the guy was, how the dog wasn't registered, etc. So, he claims he'g going to follow up on all this and that I do have to return the dog; I'm really wishing I had lied, now. So, I go get him and take him back to this freak, and just as I suspected, he comes out on the porch and is a little scrawny jerk with a GIANT belt buckle (penis substitute?) and I couldn't even bear to look at him, I took the leash off and said, 'here's your dog' and walked away. The dog didn't show any emotion at all at being reunited with this jerk. So, now all of a sudden, he's Mr. Nice Guy, says, hey I appreciate you're bringing him home. I just turned around and said, you need to reconsider getting him neutered. He starts this whole guy thing rap again and I just starterd to walk away and he's still talking, so I just turned around and said, it's your dog, you can do whatever you want but it's in the dog's best interest in terms of long term health for him to be neutered and I got in my car and drove away. I have been so upset ever since; my husband got home about 9 Saturday night and said, well, since the dog had no id, you should have hassled him and made him prove it was his dog, and my friend Joan said the same thing. I guess I should have; I was pissed off and not thinking clearly. This dog (we called him Haney after our local TV weatherman who is a great animal-lover and hosts adoption segments on the weekend editions) deserves better than this moron. I've seen some dogs get mean when they are just chained out and not well-treated, but mostly (in my experience, anyway) they are just so hungry for attention and affection that they are big lovebugs. I definately needed Karen and Jamie for backup on this one! Anyway, thanks for listening. I'm just devastated by this whole situation and can't stop thinking about it. Hugs to everyone and headbutts to all the furry ones. Love, Julie p.s. if I ever see this dog again, I've never seen him again, if you know what I mean......
