Please, please, please put an identifying tag WITH YOUR PHONE NUMBER on it on your dog - especially if she/he is big and likes to roam. A license tag is USELESS on the weekends, because the city offices are closed.
Yesterday was the third or fourth time I've been faced with a difficult decision about what to do with a stray dog that wandered into my yard. It was a Great Dane mix, a big friendly male. He had a collar with a rabies tag and a Minneapolis pet license number on it. But the vet's office and the city pound are closed on Saturday. I wanted so much to contact his owner. But I would have had to wait until Monday to get the information, so I let him go with the hope that he lived nearby and would find his way home safely. The last time I took in a stray (Great Dane mix, big friendly male) and tried to find its owner, the animal terrified my pets and wrecked my house. I never was able to locate his owner - apparently the dog was abandoned; I ended up holding him for several weeks until a pet rescue organization found a home for him. Another stray I took in (Great Dane mix, big friendly female) actually belonged to a neighbor just a few blocks away. I flyered the neighborhood and reported the animal to the pound and the Humane Society, with no response; it was pure chance that the neighbor happened to see his dog in our yard one afternoon and claim her. Another stray followed me home one time as I was out for a walk (a big friendly German Shepherd male.) He had an assortment of tags but no local identification. Again, it was on a Sunday, so I kept him over night and called the pound on Monday. His owner was distraught because she did not know what had happened to him. If she'd had her phone number on his tags, I could have saved her a lot of anxiety. It breaks my heart to see dogs running loose and vulnerable to theft and injury. Please take this simple step to help protect your pet! -- Holle Brian Bancroft _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
