We Don't Do That

Just before the Holidays. And yes,it's busy. Typical? Nothing is really typical in the Animal Control Field. It's not really any busier than the rest of the year. Although you would think that the "Season of Good Cheer" and "Good Will Towards Man" would have some affect on people.

Oh hell no.

Your more likely to get someone screaming "Merry Christmas!" While flipping you the bird.

But anyway. I'm working long days doing what I do. I get a call for a Dead Raccoon stuck between two trees.

Sounds easy enough right? Wrong. I should have know. Nothing is ever as easy as it sounds.

My very first clue should have been when the Calling Party (CP) answered the door and one of the first things she said was, "Oh, they didn't send a man?" Kinda weird huh.

She let me in to the house and led me to the backdoor, passing her mother who said, "Oh we had such a sad day yesterday." that was it. All she said and disappeared into some other part of the house.

Weirder and weirder.

So we get out in the backyard, which by the way, have about a million bird feeders and seeds all over the place. The CP is explaining this whole way how she tried to YANK the dead raccoon out but she just didn't have enough strength.

We stopped and she points up. Well there it is. About 15 feet up in one of those skinny Cypress Pine trees. She had somehow managed to cover it with a white sheet. I'm looking up there and thinking there is no way I am getting that down. Especially if she had already tried yanking it herself.

So she points out a wooden ladder that is leaning again the shed like building that the tree is next to. She said that I could climb up the ladder to the top of the shed and get in the tree to get the raccoon out.

Ummm. NO.

We don't do that.

So I nicely explained to her that we are not allowed by the county to climb up ladders, buildings, or trees. It's a strict county policy to protect us from being injured or doing damage to property.

I know, here it comes....

"Well they would do it on that TV show on the Animal Cops show."

Ya right lady. Do you see a camera crew and producers following me around? No. Do I get paid extra and does my shelter organization get a bonus for being on TV? No. Do I have the protection of a fat check from the producers if I am injured while being on TV? NO.

Do I say all this to her? I wish.

No. I smile pleasantly and apologetically explain to her that we are just not allowed to climb on anything. I asked her if she had any male friends who would be willing to help her out. She scowled at me, ACTUALLY SCOWLED, and said, "Oh we are Old."

What the heck does that have to do with having male friends?? Are you kidding me? Not to mention that she looked all of 45 at the most. Your just are a bitter woman who lives with her mother.

Ok, well then, you might have to try calling a Tree Trimming Service or Pest Control Company, because this is not something that I or any of our Officers, female or MALE are going to be allowed to do. If you get it removed from the tree we can come back out and pick it up.

Well apparently she had already called a tree trimming place and they would do it no problem, for a little over a hundred bucks.

She didn't want to have to pay. But she said she guessed she would have to. I again apologized to her that we could not help her at this point. But again reminded her that she can call us if she has the Tree company get it out. She asked if she could just put it in her garbage can. I told her that I didn't advise that because the County Garbage Collectors really don't like dead animals in the trash. Not to mention that there are county codes against it. Nothing bigger that a squirrel is allowed in the garbage. I told her to just give us a call and we can come back out and take the remains away for proper disposal.

And I left and went on with my day.

I got back to the shelter that evening and met up with a fellow officer 467 and my Supervisor. 467 was telling our Sup about a call he had in what we call Deep South. I said something about my dead raccoon 15 feet up a tree and my Supervisor laughs and says "That was your call?" So I told him how the raccoon was dead and she wanted me to climb up a rickety wooden ladder, onto the roof of this shed building and shimmy up a tree to yank the thing out of it's wedged in final resting place. He and 467 both said they wouldn't do it either.

Then he proceeds to tell me how he got this angry phone call about how we don't do our jobs and what are her tax dollars paying for if we can't get a raccoon out of a tree. It was a voicemail message she left so he didn't get the pleasant experience of explaining to her the same thing I had explained to her earlier. He only got to leave her a voicemail message back, explaining what I had told her before. We Don't do that.

And this "My Tax Dollars Pay Your Salary" Bull? Ya, well I pay taxes too, so I guess I'm paying my own salary huh? And by the way if you ARE paying my salary, I need a raise.

Wishing you all Happy Holidays! Be Safe and Love Your Pets!

Three Strikes Your Out!

Some things really irk the crap out of me. One of them is of coarse when people blatantly don't treat their animals right. Why else would I be doing this job? Another is when people lie to me. And in this job that happens about 90% of the time. This just happens to be a combination of what led up to yesterday.

Last week, when we had been having dramatically low temperatures, we got several different calls one morning about a dog that was being left inside a vehicle. The day time temperatures had been getting a little better, but still freaking cold. And we were also expecting rain. So I went out to the call.

The location of the vehicle was on the street in front of an apartment complex. This was one of those complexes that are notorious for all kinds of problems. Sure enough when I got there, there was a late model pickup and inside was a young dog. The dog was trying to push it's nose outside the rear window, which was open about one and a half inches. As soon as I got out of my truck one of the neighbors had come out to talk to me. She said that the dog has been there for a week in the car. The owner is around, but she didn't know where he was. Several of the neighborhood kids were also hanging around. I swear, no matter what day of the week it is or what time it is there are always tons of school age kids hanging around. A few piped up that they knew the guy who owned the dog. One girl said that she didn't think the owner fed the dog so she gave it a sandwich every morning on her way to school. I got a closer look at the dog, a little 5 month old pitbull puppy. She barked and whined and dug at the windows. All indications to me that she wanted out. The truck was a wreak. There was not only torn up truck interior, destroyed by the puppy, but all sorts of garbage piled up on the seats and floors. I saw not food or water inside and even walked to the other side to make sure nothing was on the floor. This was no way for a dog, especially a puppy to live. And it appeared she had been living in the truck for awhile.

I got on the phone and called my supervisor. He told me to go ahead and take the dog. Zero tolerance in our county for dogs left in cars.

By the time I finished my assessment the owner showed up. I guessed that one of the kids went and told him that I was there. The owner was a young guy, probably 18 or 19 years old. He looked like he had just been woken up, even though it was past noon. He admitted that this was his truck and his dog. He claimed that he was living at his cousin's house here until a few days ago when his cousin kicked him and his dog out. He said he was kind of stuck here now since he ran out gas. I told him that the dog cannot stay in the truck. That we had received multiple complaints and that the dog didn't have food and water. He said the dog isn't always in the truck and he feeds her and gives her water. I gave him a copy of the state law regarding leaving animals in unattended vehicle. He begged me not to take his dog. So I told him that he can't leave the dog in the truck. He then told me that he was going to be leaving the area this afternoon anyway after he gets some gas. Ok. So I told him that if I got anymore complaints that we will be back and take the the dog. So I left.

I think it was a day or two when we got another call, from one of the people who had called in previously. She told out dispatcher that the dog was STILL in the truck and the truck hadn't left.

So I went back out. Unfortunately it was afternoon by the time I got out there so of coarse the owner was awake and had taken the dog out. But the truck was still there. He hadn't left like he had said he was going to, and we were still getting complaints. I had a couple of the local residents come by and tell me that the dog is left in the truck overnight and the owner come about noon and gets the dog out for a little while, then it goes back in the truck for the rest of the night.

I knew that this was what was going on and the kid was full of it. So, I decided to follow through. I went back to my truck and started writing out a 48 hour pre-seizure notice. This would either scare the kid into not leaving his dog in the truck, or it would give us the full legal right to take the dog. As I was walking towards the truck with the pre-seizure in had I saw the kid, and the dog. They were headed towards the truck but stopped when he saw me. He looked right at me and turned around and quickly walked in the opposite direction, disappearing around the apartment building. This ticked me off. Then as I was taping the Seizure notice to the truck window I glanced up to see a small car go by. In the passenger seat was the kid and in the back seat the dog. He looked right at me and my truck as they passed. This ticked me off even more.

We had a officer go out the next day, the truck was still there but the dog wasn't in the truck. I had a call out at the apartment complex the day after that. Totally unrelated to the dog in the truck. I drove slowly by the truck. The windows were fogged, but I didn't see the dog. Unfortunately we still had to wait until the next day for the seizure to be valid. As I was leaving I was stopped once again by a concerned neighbor who said basically the same thing as everyone else I had talked to. Really this had to end. I had also gotten a phone message this morning from another reporting party.

The next day.

I finally got out to the truck. I was expecting the dog to not be there since it was after noon. But as I pulled up I saw that the windows where fogged, then a little dog head popped up. I parked and approached the truck. The doors were locked and windows rolled up. There was some dog food spread among the junk and garbage in the truck, but still no water. The back window was a vertical slider. There was about a inch and a half gap in the window. I tried to open the windows but they were stuck or purposely jammed.

Once again the neighborhood kids were congregating around. Several of them had obnoxious comments, not towards me but that the guy was gonna get his dog taken. Since I couldn't get the dog out I called dispatch to get assistance. Dispatch notified the Fire Department.

While waiting for the fire department, guess who shows up? Yep. The owner. One of the kids had gone to tell him I was there to take his dog. He came running towards the truck yelling at me that I was not going to F-ing take his dog. He looked in the truck, obviously checking to see if the dog was still in the truck. I told him that if he takes the dog out that I would get the sheriff out. He was mumbling, ignoring me and trying to get into the truck. He climbed into the back of the truck and was not trying to get the jammed windows apart. I called Dispatch and asked them to have sheriff respond. Since he had taken off the last time I saw him, I didn't want him to get away again. And this needed to end.

I over heard one of the kids ask him where his keys were. He told the kids that he lost them and couldn't get in the truck. Then he looked up at me, realizing I heard that. So not only is he continuing to keep the dog in the truck but he lost the keys and couldn't get the dog out anyway!

I again told him that he is not to leave with the dog, that Sheriff was on their way.

The glass that he was jerking on finally broke. He got the dog out of the cab of the truck. Dispatch was trying to get a hold of me, and it was at this moment that my radio began to fail me. This isn't the first time I have been in a situation where I need my radio and it is failing. So I am trying to respond to dispatch and trying to call my dispatcher on the phone. But apparently she is on the phone and trying to get me on the radio. Meanwhile I am also telling the kid he cannot leave with the dog, he starts coming towards me.

Just then I hear the rumble of a large vehicle and the rush of air brakes. Fire Department has arrived. The kid is now begging me to let him explain his situation. He wants me to give him another chance. That he won't do it again.

Nope. You had plenty of warnings, plenty of time. And you lied to me. Then you ran from me. Now your dog is coming with me.

Fire is standing by while I am having this discussion. The kids then said that it wasn't me that was here. He hadn't talked to me, I hadn't been the one that posted the notice. Excuse me? Would you like to see a copy of the notice with my name and badge number on it. This kid need to put down the pipe and give his brain cells a chance to survive!

He is still holding onto the dog despite me telling him that he needs to put the dog on my truck. Now he is pleading that if I take her that he doesn't have any money and he won't be able to get her back.

He doesn't have money. He doesn't have money for gas, or to bail his dog out. So if he doesn't have money how is he going to take care of this dog? If she gets sick or injured? What is he going to do? He's warm and comfortable hanging out in a friend's apartment while this dog, who he now saying is all he has in the world, is freezing her little thin coated puppy self off in his broke down piece of junk truck. He's now looking like he is about to make a move. Maybe to run. But Firefighters are standing right behind me. Then we hear sheriff sirens on their way.

Sheriff gets there and he asks if I am ok. I'm fine. I'm just here to take the dog. Deputy tells the kid to hand over the dog. He finally does and I get her loaded. Then the deputy cuffs the kid, checks his pockets and puts him in the back of the car. I thanked the firefighters for being there so quickly, but the kid had broke into his own truck. One of the firefighters frown and said he was bummed they didn't get to break something. Gotta love that. They left and another Sheriff car showed up. By now most of the neighbors had come out to see what was going on.

I got the dog loaded into my truck. the deputy again made sure I was ok. And said they would take it from there and I could go ahead and roll. I let him know that the kid had 14 days to come get his dog, he said he would let the kid know that. I saw a couple of women standing on the sidewalk across the street, one waved at me to get my attention and kind of shouted "thank you!"

I nodded to her and got in my truck and left.

Puppy now is at the shelter. She has a clean warm kennel, a fluffy clean blanket bed to sleep on and plenty of water and food. Hopefully the kid won't come get her and take her back to a life on the streets sleeping in a cold filthy junk filled truck. Hopefully she will get adopted and go to a loving home where she will be warm and cared for every night.

I Do Love Happy Endings

The call I got had actually been closed by another officer. Unable to locate. The call type, Abandoned Dog. When I got there and talked to the home owner's daughter, it turns out this dog is actually a stray.

So the back story.

Apparently, the homeowner had seen a dog in her backyard about a month ago. Then it disappeared. She thought maybe the gardeners had left the gate open and the dog wandered in and then left again. Then a week ago she saw it again. Same dog wandering in her backyard bushes. Again she thought it was the gardeners leaving the gate open and one of her neighbor's dog was getting in again. But then the next day she saw it again. It was the same dog. Then she realized that there is no way the dog could be getting in and out, she had all new fences and there were no hole. The gardeners said nothing to her, so they hadn't seen it. She called ACR to report this dog in her backyard, for a month.

So I met with the homeowner and her oldest daughter and granddaughter. The daughter said once they realized that the dog had been there so long they immediately fed it chicken and rice. The dog was very fearful and wouldn't let anyone close. It stayed behind the thick hedge the ran the entire fence line around the yard, but it was eating and luckily the homeowner regularly had a bucket of water outside for various purposes.

I had a very difficult time due to the thickness of the hedge trying to even see the dog. But then it stopped and I was able to get a look.

The dog was a golden Retriever mix of some kind. Very golden hair, a female looking face and white on "her" chest. The daughter and I took to calling her a "her" just based on her face. She just looked like a girl.

And she looked so familiar to me. I had seen this dog's face before.

Coaxing didn't work too well. She would jut run along the back of the hedge as we called her and tried to get her to come out. My mind was working over where I had seen her before.

Then it hit me. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before. Craigslist.

I asked the daughter if she had Internet access. I explained to her where I had thought I had seen the dog. Her younger sister still lived with their mom and she had a laptop in her room. So we took a break from trying to get the dog out of the hedge and tried t look for the dog on CL.

The daughter found two possible ads. One was from pretty far off, the other was definitely within a few miles. She called the first one and it wasn't the right dog. And unfortunately the ad and picture wouldn't load.

When we went out to try to get their dog out again she actually growled when we got close. Not a nasty growl, just a I'm really scared so back off growl. I hated having to do it, since I knew she was just terrified, but I got my catch pole. The hedges also made it very difficult to get her out, but I finally got her out. She was definitely freaked out. I sat down on a chair and slowly drew her close to me, talking soft and reassuring her I wasn't going to hurt her.Finally I was able to touch her, then pet her. She began to relax a little but she was still scared. I switched the catch pole for a leash. Her neck hair indicated that she had a collar not long ago. The hedges probably removed it.

Once she was a little calmer. We walked her out to my truck where my microchip reader was. The dog was so happy to be out of the backyard that she practically dragged me to the truck. When I opened the door to grabbed the scanner, she jumped in. She was ready to go!

After finally locating a battery, borrowed from my garage door opener, I scanned her. No chip read. A small sense of defeat. I always want it to be easy. It never is.

I wasn't giving up though, and neither was the home owner's daughter. She was going to go home and get on her home computer that she knew worked well. I was going to hope that the microchip reader at the shelter would pick up a chip, as it often does. Our "Halo" readers suck.

The daughter had wanted to take the dog to her house until the owner could be located. But since she was already in my truck, and the daughter lived quite a distance away, I was going to be taking her with me.

It nagged at me through my next call. Since I was close to home I decided to swing by and use my own home computer and look up the ad.

Sure enough. There was her picture. It was 99.9% her. Her name was Sammy and she had been missing a month! She was micro chipped (did I mention my chip reader sucks?).

I tried calling the first phone number provided. The man on the other end said that if this was regarding the CL ad, the number must have been mis-typed. He didn't have a missing dog.

The second number reached a voice message. I left a message.

I got a call from the home owner's daughter. She had found the ad and did the same thing I did. Wit the same results. But she was sure too that this was the dog. Sammy was just chillin in my truck now.

I stopped by one of my favorite vet hospitals after patrolling around the area where the ad had said the dog had been lost. No signs. But it had been a month. I borrowed the vet's chip scanner, one of the old models. Nope. Nothing. The chip reading would have to wait until we got back to the shelter.

I left a couple more messages. It was frustrating being so close to reuniting this dog who had been gone so long, yet not being able to.

I finally got back to the shelter. I scanned the dog and there it was, the microchip! 460 called the Chip company for me while I did a search in our system. Just as she got the info my phone rang. It was the daughter again. She had finally gotten a hold of the owners. She was so excited. The chip info matched the phone number and name of the person who the daughter had talked to.

I called the owner. He was almost speechless when I spoke to him. I told him that if her could get to the shelter before 6pm, I would be able to give him his dog. Otherwise he would have to wait 2 more days since we would be close the next 2 days. To be honest, if he had said he wouldn't be able to be there until 7, I would ha ve waited. I gave him my cell number and told him to call when he arrived.

At 5:50pm I got the call. they were here. 460 and I loaded Sammy up in the truck and drove out the gate to meet the owners.

Sammy was a completely different dog when she got out of that truck. She was jumping, no, springing! with joy. Wiggling and whining not knowing who to love first, mom, dad or her girl. She bounded from one to the other licking and wiggling, tail wagging furiously with joy. The family was overjoyed as well. Loving on her and talking sweet talk to her.

Mom said they had been coming to the shelter several times a week and on weekends looking for her. Sammy had gotten out during the last windstorm that had done a lot of damage to the area with downed trees and fences. Their fence was a victim of the storm.

Sammy's chocolate lab buddy as home was a depressed mess without her. He would be so happy to see her again too.

And with that we said good-bye. They took their beloved dog home. She will get a vet check-up and new collar and tags the next day. She had lost quite a bit of weight, but she was pretty fat before going missing, according to the owners.

I called the daughter and let her know about how happy Sammy and her family were to be re-united. She was very happy.

Gotta love those happy endings.

Creepiness

Ok so it's been awhile and I promised to share something creepy that recently happened. This was just a little before Halloween, how appropriate.

I got a call for a Welfare Check on Animals. The complaint was that the calling party was concerned that there was a very bad smell coming from the dog owner's house. And that the owners had a lot of dogs. The Calling party was concerned that the dogs were not being cared for and dying. There was also a note about the CP being asked by the dog owner to help put dead animals in bags and in garbage. Nice huh? Oh it gets better.

This hadn't been my call originally. The call came in the previous day. The officer assigned couldn't find the address as it was dark and the streets in this particular area are very confusing. Not to mention that he was given the street name and house number! After he spent time trying to unsuccessfully find it, he pended the call for the next day. That was how I ended up with it.

Now, I was less than thrilled that day. I was assigned to work the southern part of the county. Not an area I am entirely familiar with or comfortable in. But I adapt. I was also on my last day of the week and my two week vacation, the first I have had in several years, started that next day. And after running around the entire southern parts of the county, this was my last call for the day.

So I arrived at the address and parked in front of the poorly kept front yard. As soon as I got out of my truck I could smell it. It was the unmistakable smell of death.

As an ACO this is a smell that you can recognize if you pick up a lot of DOAs (dead on arrivals) and road kill. It's never a pleasant smell, but not one that really bothers me too much.

Anyway, I wasn't even on the property yet and could smell it strongly. It was old death. Something that had been dead for awhile.

I took a quick look around to try to get an idea of location of the source of the smell. There were a couple of piles of clothing in the driveway. As I approached the driveway it smelled very strong. But I couldn't quite locate it. There weren't any trash cans. Which according to the report, the animal remains may have been put in the trash. No cans. Just piles in the driveway of clothing. I side stepped the clothes and approached the front door. It didn't appear that anyone was home since there were no cars in the driveway or on the street parked. I figured that I would end up posting a notice and clear out.

As I approached the door I saw a Missing Persons flyer attached to the front door. A young couple's picture centered on the flyer. Apparently both were missing. I knocked several times and got no answer. I didn't hear any dogs barking either. So I wrote my notice and stuck it in the crack of the door as I usually did. There just wasn't much more I could do at this point.

I walked across the lawn this time towards my truck, the smell was ever-present while I was on the property. I was about half way to my truck when the neighbor one house away caught my attention. He hollered to me that the people that live there aren't there. I acknowledged that I figured that out. We approached each other. Maybe he might know when the owners would be home as he obviously knew they weren't home.

The neighbor then told me that all the people that lived there were in jail. He then asked me, didn't I watch the news? They had found the missing couples bodies in the garbage cans at this house. Well at least the Male's body was stuffed in the garbage can right here on the side of the house. Apparently the female's body was in a garbage can and wheeled around the corner to a field and dumped out. This was according to the neighbor.

No, I hadn't been watching the news recently due to working late hours and not getting home in time for the news. But ya, wow. The neighbor told me more and showed me where the garbage cans had been next to the garage. It was then I noticed the police tape across the gate next to the garage. I also heard a small dog barking in the backyard. The neighbor told me that they had several of the small chihuahuas, maybe 6 or 7. they used to have more, but he thinks that maybe some were killed or died. He wasn't sure. He showed me the big smelly stains on the ground where the decomposing bodies were.

Wow.

He then said that the cops had been there from about 4pm yesterday until about 7am this morning and they were going to be coming back. But it was nearly 4pm and they had not returned. The neighbor stated the there was not one in the house. He didn't think anyone was going to be back to the house.

So this now became a issue. I knew there was at least one dog on the property, and possibly 7. It was also possible that the owners would not be returning home. This was also a major crime scene. And of coarse I had no luck getting in touch with any of the cops that had been on scene or were working the case to find out if I could enter the property to get the dogs or at least find out if family members were going to be back to care for the dogs.

I finally decided that since I couldn't get any authorization that I could or should enter the property, I would post a Pre-seizure notice. At least this would give the cops an idea that Animal Control was contacted and that we needed contact or something. We could always come back at the cops request. I was surprised that we hadn't been called by them when they were on scene. As this is what they usually do.

There was just too much ookieness to this whole scene.

Apparently this was a huge local news story that was on all the channels.

Ya, creepy.

Oh, and did I mention this happened on my birthday?

Happy birthday to me huh?

Back to our Regularly scheduled program...soon!

I've been really remiss at blogging for a little while. It happens. My work schedule has changed and it's just been crazy. But I have a couple things in the works..so stay tuned!! Read some of my past stuff and I'll be back soon with some new stuff including Halloween stuff and some ookie spooky creepy stuff that recently happened!!

Fire and No Off Switch

My husband once again was subjected to my inability to find my "Off" switch from ACO to regular person.

It was my day off and my husband and I had gone into town to have a little lunch at a sandwich place. We had finished and where just pulling back onto the main street in town. Our conversation was about what we were going to do next. I said that I was stuffed and just wanted to go home and relax. It was about then that we noticed that large black column of smoke ahead of us.
I'm sure that if I hadn't been destine to be an ACO, then I would have been a Firefighter, my dad had been one and I am very much like my father. So, my natural curiosity had me driving in that direction. I told my husband, lets just see where it's at. We turned from main street onto the main Boulevard and headed in the direction of the smoke. The column was getting bigger and blacker. We heard the sirens behind us and pulled over for the fire trucks. Three went zooming by, followed by the 2 battalion commander trucks. The whole town was gravitating in the direction of the small. It's a Saturday afternoon and nothing much going on in town.

I knew the area pretty well and instead of going directly towards the smoke, or following the fire trucks like everyone else, I went passed and would loop up and around. That move put us in to the right spot. We were very close now.

I realized at the time how close we were to "JJ's" horse ranch. And how close the smoke was to her ranch. "JJ" is a person that we have been called out to her horse ranch a few times. I knew that she had about 20-30 horses, and if this was close she might need some help.

As I pulled closer to JJ's ranch, we realized that the fire was DIRECTLY behind JJ property. Close enough to be dangerous to the horses. There was a battalion chief standing next to the barn assessing the fire I assume. I pulled into the driveway and got out, putting my ACO badge on my belt.

There were two ladies and a young boy on the ranch. They were trying to find ropes and halters to get the horses moved. One of the ladies, Kristin, didn't even have horses on the property, she just stopped to see if anyone needed help as she lived down the street. The other lady owned a horse on the property and she had already moved it to the arena. JJ wasn't there. The lady who had a horse there told me she was trying to call JJ. The fire was right at the back fence, where two horses where in paddocks. Thick black billowing smoke and flames were right there. You could feel the heat. Another four horses were in small paddocks close by. All the horses were very distress and basically freaking out with the noises, smells and smoke. We started moving the horses closest to the fire away. While doing this, something exploded. Made the horses even more jumpy.

I was also on the phone trying to get a hold of my dispatch, and to also try to get a hold of JJ. I had dispatch try to call her. Dispatch asked if I needed to have any officers respond and I told them at this point I didn't think so. Our department has suffered some hard staffing hits due to budget cuts in the county and we were already short staffed. I was there and if we needed more help I would call. The Battalion chief left and shortly after a Sheriff deputy arrived. He asked the lady with her son if they needed any help. She pointed at me and told him that I was animal control and we had things covered. He asked me if I wanted him to call dispatch to have more ACOs respond. I told him that we seemed to have things covered. He said that that was good, because he didn't know anything about horses. He also cleared out a few lookie loos that had parked on JJs ranch and weren't doing anything but standing around.

We got all the horses closest to the fire moved. My husband, was wonderful in handling a yearling colt, an Arabian yearling no less, something he hasn't ever done before. I had the other Arab yearling. And anyone who has worked with "babies" knows they can be a handful and dangerous in normal circumstances. We moved the yearlings into the round pen that had been set up inside of the arena. Another horse was also in the arena. The four other horses we tied to the horse trailer. We assessed if we needed to move any of the other horses. But at this time it looked like the fire wasn't coming much closer. The firefighters were hard at work knocking it back. We could see from where we stood in the arena that the smoke color had changed and it wasn't as thick. We also no longer saw flames licking at JJs pasture fence. Two more horse owners arrived and everyone was checking to make sure that horses were ok. JJ arrived shortly after they did. She had managed to come from across the county and get through all the road blocks they now had set up in 15 minutes.

It was about this time when we all noticed that just to the north of us another huge column of smoke was rising up. Apparently while we were busy with the horses, another fire had started just to the north of us. All we could really do was stand around, checking on the horses, monitoring the progress behind (west) us and watch the progression of the new fire to the north of us.

We could hear sirens all over and according to JJ, they had all the streets blocked off. One of the other owners said that they had evacuations of the area going on. We watched as the second fire grew, spread, and took over more and more of the land. The Fire department also had their helicopter making multiple passes dumping water from the hose dangling down. We couldn't help make a few obscene comments about the helicopter.

We moved the horses that had been tied to the horse trailer and put them in the arena. As we were watering horses we noticed a huge constant flame in the direction of the second fire. Some guy appeared and was running around the ranch saying that it was a propane tank and it was going to blow, run for your lives! Then he disappeared. I looked at my husband and he shook his head. If it was a propane tank, we were at a safe distance. Someone had the good idea to go and close the gates to the ranch to keep people out from that point on. We didn't need any more of that. And we thought with all the Deputies patrolling and the road blocks no one could get in.

We got reports that the fire was close to the local feed store and general store. We could see that it was in that general direction. We were pretty much at the original ground zero.

We watched the helicopter pass over what seemed like a hundred times. The fire appeared to keep moving. We kept seeing black columns rising up as we knew new structures were being consumed by fire.

It seemed like we had been there for hours. In reality it was only a couple of hours from the time we got there until then. I had been on and off the phone with my dispatch and one of my fellow officers, 460. 460 was headed out our direction with supposedly 100 dogs in a kennel in the path of the fire. But she didn't have any further details. I asked her to give me a call and if she needed help I was already right there. Things were pretty much under control at JJs ranch. Horses were all safe and relatively calm for having the copter buzzing low over their heads. Even the fire that had originally started all of this was much calmer. There were still firefighters working on it but now it was more control hot spots time.

We stayed around for a little while longer and continued to watch the activity to our north. It seemed that every time we looked in that direction the fire was getting further away, but still going. It was just crazy.

I talked to 460 again and she and 480 were almost to the area. We said good-bye to JJ and left her ranch. Road block deputies let us through to met up with 460. I had to maneuver around fire trucks and other emergency vehicles. I met up with 460 and 480. They had been told to go to the command center, but were apparently given the wrong directions. So they had to turn around and we all went to the command center. I did get yelled at by a firefighter who was manning a water truck (ok he was standing next to it talking to another firefighter). He was yelling at me to keep moving while I was trying to ask him where the command center was. He stopped yelling when I showed him my ACO badge and pointed to the other trucks behind me. He pointed out the command center, which turned out to be the backyard of the property owner where the fire ORIGINALLY started! Firefighter grumbled something that was I guess suppose to be sort of apologetic and said he thought I was just another lookie loo.

So we got to the command center and found out that we got there for nothing. They apparently didn't know anything about any 100 dogs trapped in kennels. So they didn't need us.

Ok, so my husband and I finally went home and I flopped down in my chair. Now I was going to relax like I said I wanted to do before getting myself into all of that.

Nope. I guess I don't have an Off Switch.

Drunken Animal Rescue

When you look at my past, it's almost a no-brainer why I became an ACO. And this story is yet another testament of my destiny. This particular event happened in about 1993. Names have not been revealed to protect the disgusted, my wonderful big sister who put up with a LOT in my drinking days.

In the years prior to becoming an ACO, I was working at a Veterinary hospital. One of several that I would work at through the years.
One night my sister and some friends and I went out on a girl's night out. Drinking and having fun. Probably more drinking than fun. On the way home, things started spinning for me so I hollered at my sister, our designated driver to pull over. She pulled off the freeway and a couple of us scrambled out for fresh air. I was leaning over a guardrail, relieving my stomach, when I spotted a couple balls of fluff, one gray, one orange.
Feral kittens. I’m not sure why they were right there in that very spot, but there they were.
“Kid-enz!” I slurred. Dressed in high-heels, that in my condition I was already having a difficult time walking in, and a mini skirt, I stumbled over the guardrail. I managed to grab the little orange kitten and clutched it to my chest. I looked around for the other one but it had disappeared. I felt kind of bad that I wouldn't be able to find the other one tonight so I weaved and wobbled my way back to the car.
“LoooooKy, wha' I found….a kiden.” I crowed proudly showing off my “rescue” to my friends.
My sister was not pleased to say the least.
“You are not bringing that cat in my car!” She told me. I can remember standing there feeling like a weeble-wobble toy.
“Aww, comm-on….ish jus a kiden.” I held it up for her to see, as if she couldn't already. Her nose wrinkled and she took a step back.
“Gross! No way! Oh my god, you ralphed on it!”
I could hear our other drunken companions laughing.
Then in the murky depths of my pickled brain I managed to get an idea.
“Hey, hey…HEY! My hoss-pit-ol isn't far, take me there and I’ll jus drop kiden off til ta-mar-O. Puuu-lesh?” I was again holding kitten close.
I think my sister knew she wasn't going to win this one, so she reluctantly agreed to take me to the hospital I worked at. It really wasn't too far away.
We pulled into the parking lot of my place of employment. The hospital operated on normal business hours so no one was there. But being an employee, I had the alarm code and key. And this was of coarse for a good cause.
It was a little tricky getting in regardless. In my condition, it took three attempts to punch in the code. Any more that three and the cops are notified. Being an animal hospital with controlled drugs on the premises, they would have arrived quickly. But with a sign of relief I was able to get in without incidence. Everyone else waited in the car.
I Set kitty up in a cage with food and water and for good measure I wrote a note to the kennel attendant and vet for the morning so they wouldn't wonder how this stray cat got into the cage in the hospital. My job was complete.
So the next day, I get to work in the afternoon. The vet was fine with what I had done and I filled him in on the details. Especially since there was a question of why the kitten smelled so bad. The vet also had a good laugh when he handed me a note that looked like a three year old wrote it. It was my note.
I did bathe kitten and the vet gave him a through exam. Determining that he was healthy, he was given the name "Ralph".
Ralph was soon adopted by a long time hospital client, who laughed when she was told the story of how he came to be. She also promised that his name would always be Ralph.

Failure to Communicate II... When To Call The Cops

So my day had already started out with a wingdinger (See Blog Failure to Communicate). I was on my way to another call when I was called by dispatch. The call was for two 803's, meaning loose aggressive dogs. The only information that was given to dispatch and relayed to me was there were 2 aggressive pitbulls and that these same dogs had killed a cat about a month ago in the same location. The person calling didn't leave a name so I wasn't about to call them back.

(Let me jump in here and say, when your calling in a complaint LEAVE A NAME AND/OR PHONE NUMBER! We know you want to remain anonymous and we will keep it that way, but if we need further information or even details we need to be able to talk to you.)

I get tho the location and there is this black and white pitbull mix standing in the middle of the street, I also notice a brown pitbull laying on a nearby driveway. I pulled over and as soon as I did the black and white dog began sharking around my truck. I pulled out my catchpole and opened the door. I wasn't sure where the dog had gone at this point, he was on the other side of my truck now. When I cautiously walked around my truck the black and white dog charged at me, posturing really. I pushed him back and he backed down. Then he and the brown dog took off running. I jumped back in my truck and followed them down the street.

I asked several neighbors who where out doing yard work or on their garages if they knew who the dogs belonged to. No one did, but they did say the dogs are always running loose in the neighborhood. This gave me a clue that they must live nearby. I continued to follow them.

The street became a dead-end at a field. I watched as the dogs went into the field. The Black dog was went wide and climbed a short chain link section of fence and jumped into the backyard. The brown dog went over a low section of wire fence into the same backyard. I took a quick note of the house color, and the location. I drove around to the street that the the house was on.

As I pulled up the driveway a young guy came out the front door. I told him that a couple of pitbulls just jumped into his backyard. He responded by saying "Those are ours." I told him that I needed to see his ID and talk to him about the dogs being loose. He tells me he has no ID and that he isn't the dog owner. Ok. So I need to talk to the dog owner. Oh she's not here right now. Ok. Well then I need to talk to the dog owner or I'm going to need to impound the dogs since the owner isn't here. The guy disappears back in the house.

I get out of my truck and walk towards the house. As soon as I get to the porch a young woman throws open the door. She steps out and immediately demands to know why the F- I was there. I told her that I had followed 2 pitbulls and watched them jump over the fence into the backyard of this house. Well I don't have pitbulls. Ok, well then maybe these aren't your dogs, I'll go get them. Oh hell no your not going in my backyard. Then she wants to know what the dogs look like. I tell her one is all black male with a little bit of white and the other is brown male. Well there are dogs like that all over the neighborhood, how do I know they are hers. Well, They jumped the fence into your backyard. Well MY dogs don't get out.

At this point the guy who had come out the door and went back in side comes back out along with 4 other guys, and another redheaded guy is leaning out of a window. The girl is still yammering on about how do I know they are her dogs, the the redheaded starts chiming in that I am a liar and that I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know how to do my job, prove that the dogs are theirs, prove that they were out. On and on over and over. This is getting the girl worked up and she is mimicking the red head guy's yelling.

So I have had enough. I'm just going to issue a citation and be done with this. I get my cite book out and start writing. The two of them keep on with "Your a liar. You need to get the F- on." You don't even know how to do your job." You can't write a ticket for s--t."I ain't telling you who I am get the F- out of here before I kick your ass. Your trespassing, get the F-on your Trespassing you need to leave now Bye bye Liar. Get the F-out of here. You can't do s--t to us."

I kept writing and basically ignoring them but keeping an eye on them. The girl went in the house after calling me a dog hater, and that I should die. A few moments later she came back out yelling that her dogs weren't even there. That I must have done something to them. And she starts going off on me again. While she was screaming at me, along with the non-stop redheaded window hanger still going on and on like a broken record.

I called dispatch at this point to request sheriff to my location. Threats to kick my ass, what did I do with her dogs, her dogs are gone. She yelled at me that her dogs weren't in the backyard, I could go look. Then redhead told her that I could do s--t. She then went back to accusing me of having her dogs and that the dogs were gone.

I was starting to move towards my truck, then a car pulled right behind me. The driveway was huge, they had plenty of places to park. Turns out to be mom. Redhead is hollering at her to move the car as I am leaving. She moves the car and then comes at me. She immediately yells"What the F- is going on!" The girl and the guys become even more agitated and I called dispatch again to get an ETA on sheriff. Dispatch can hear all the yelling and is sending SSD code3.

I tried to talk to mom, but the girl was screaming and yelling while I was trying to talk to her as well as the redheaded guy still hanging out the window still making his noise. I did reach a point where the mom and I were getting somewhere, I actually got her name and she even told me that the dogs were constantly getting out. She told me that just about every morning she had to go find them. She also told me that they had another female that they had taken away because she kept getting out and killing cats. But these dogs just get out, they don't hurt anything.

Thenthe girl went off again say that the dogs were gone and I had taken them. The yelling started back up and even mom reached her breaking point and with her daughter she demanded to know what I did with the dogs, did I have them in my truck? Then she went off on the Get the F off my property tangent. She was demanded to know what I did with her dogs. And she was going to report me.

If I had the dogs do you REALLY think That I would still be here?

I got in my truck and backed out of the driveway, as I was flipped off by mom and the girl.

I didn't go far. Just out on the street in front of the neighbors house. SSD pulled up right then and I explained the situation. Three SSD units responded and after they were given the info. the pulled into the driveway.

I couldn't see the from where I was but I could hear the loud mouths going off on the deputies. Swearing, screeching and yelling. The neighbors had come out while I had been on the property and now they were confident enough to talk to me. The woman said she was afraid of the people over there, they're drug users and where always like this. She also said that she had photos and video of the dogs getting out. She was afraid of the dogs as they had trapped her in her house and driveway several times.

One of the other neighbors also said the dogs got out a lot and that they had killed numerous animals, cats, and even a dog down the street. But no one reported it. Everyone is apparently too afraid to report these people. I told them that by not reporting these incidents ties our hands to be able to do anything. I gave them business cards and told them that these dogs needed to be reported any time that they left their property.

I could still hear all the noise from next door. And pretty soon the SSD Lieutenant showed up. I briefed her on my end and told her I just needed to issue a citation. She pulled in behind her deputies. Pretty soon it quieted down a little and a deputy waved me to come back over. I noticed that the "guys" were all hovering near the house, loud mouth redhead was in the back of a deputy's car. The Lt. called mom over and I gave her the citation. The girl, her daughter started whining that he mom shouldn't have to get a citation, that the dogs were hers and she should get the citation. What ever.

The mom apologized to me for her daughter's behavior. Her excuse was that she doesn't wake up well. It was afternoon. She said that if I had been nice that her daughter wouldn't have gotten so upset. Huh?

I had accomplished what I needed to, issuing the citation for the dogs. I also gave the mom my business card with my supervisor's name and phone number on it. I told her that if she still felt it necessary to make a complaint I was providing her with my name and supervisor's name and number. (She still hasn't called to "report" me.)

And the dogs? Ya, they had been in the house the whole time.

Was this all necessary? No.

Had the girl simply acknowledged that her dogs had gotten out and told me that she was going to do something to keep them in, I probably would have given her a simple warning and advised her to license the dogs. At worse she would have gotten a "fix-it" ticket to license the dogs. But nooooooo....she had to be an uncooperative psycho with her big dumber that dirt redheaded boyfriend that doesn't know when to shut up. And what did that get him? Stuffed in the back of a cop car.

And Mom? Way to raise your kids. These "kids" are all late teen early twenties. But obviously have no social skills. And mom's defense of bad behaviour because I wasn't "nice". Ok, just wondering when did I have the chance to be nice?

Communication: Fail.

Failure to Communicate

I should have had a clue that it would be one of those days when I woke up late. My furry four legged alarm clock was still snoozing! But I'm not really blaming the dog who normally is jumping on me howling and pulling at the covers before I can hit the snooze on the REAL alarm clock. My carpool buddy and fellow officer 450 and I were 5 minutes late today. Maybe that is what set the whole world off kilter. Naw.

I know what it was. And I had warned 460 about it a few weeks ago. Never volunteer for a Beat. Just take what is assigned and work your calls. But did I follow my own advice this morning? Nope. I jumped at the chance to switch Beats and my day went to hell in a handbasket. Ok. Maybe not that bad. But it was one of those days that really tests my composure and professionalism. One of those days that makes me wonder how I keep from punching people in the head.

The first call I went to I thought would be easy. Patrol for a loose dog that we have been getting reports on for a couple weeks and have yet to see. I had this same call last week. No dog seen. Today I get to the address where the dog was last reported and as I am just getting ready to turn around and leave, I spot him. He was laying on the walkway of a house right next to the reported address. He looked pretty relaxed so I got out and walked up to him. He growled, barked and ran up to the front porch and continued to bark.

I could hear the TV and children inside the house so I rang the bell. It took a few minutes but eventually the door opened. Mr.Ghetto was a rather large man covered in tattoos, I knew this because he wasn't wearing a shirt. I also, from observational experience and watching too many cop shows and documentaries on gangs recognized prison and gang tattoos. Three smallish children peered out the window and one with a bottle squeezed out the door. I asked him if the dog was his. He looked at me and simply stated, "We don't want him no more, you can take him."

So he's your dog? "No, he's my wife's dog." Well does your wife live here? "Ya but she don't want his either. He gets out of the fence." Then you need to fix the fence so he stays in.

Mr. Ghetto just gives me a blank stare.

Well, you can't let him just wander the neighborhood. We been calling you guys to come get him but no one comes." Well we don't come out to pick up owned dogs. You have to surrender him to the shelter. "Well your here now. You take him with you." Ok, well in order for me to take him, I have to have you fill out a surrender form and there is a surrender fee. "Oh hell no! I ain't paying you s--t. You can just take the f-ing dog and get the F- off my property." And it just went down from there. I wasn't going to just take the dog. Especially not after seeing that they have a new pitbull puppy inside the house.

So poor old dog's cuteness or novelty wore off, or maybe he wasn't "TUFF" enough for Mr. Ghetto. I asked for Mr.Ghetto's name and he refused to give me any information. He told me I could just speak to his wife. Alright, so what's her number? And her name? He gives me both and then I think he realized his bonehead move so he told me to get the F- off his porch, went in the house and slammed the door.

I could hear him tell his small children several derogatory things about cops as he walked into the house. And we wonder what is wrong with kids today?

So I called the wife. Who was a much a pleasure to speak with as Mr.Ghetto. Only difference was that she was at work and so she left out the cuss words. I told her that in order for me to take their OWNED dog, I must collect a $$ surrender fee. Nope, she wasn't going to pay it. Ok, so I explained that if that was the case I would have to issue a citation for unlicensed, unaltered, unvaccinated and at-large dog. The fines for this would be $$$. She just said do what you gotta do and hung up on me.

So I wrote her the Citation. I had her name, thank you Mr.Ghetto. I felt bad for the dog. Really. But I was pissed that people think animals are so throw away, and at that point I wanted to issue the citation. I finished writing it up and posted it to the front door. I couldn't just take the dog. I needed the owners to sign a surrender form. But I knew we would be back, not only for the dog on the porch but eventually for the Pitbull puppy.

I had made it around the corner and down the street when I was flagged down by a woman walking her two dogs. She asked if I had been looking for the little brown dog. I gave her an abbreviated and cleaner version of my results. She said that she and a couple of other concerned neighbors had called before. She asked what more could she do to help the little dog. I told her that should the little dog somehow follow her home when she is out walking her own dogs she could put it in her backyard for safekeeping and call us about the stray dog.

I received the dispatch half and hour later.

So the owner's have been issued a citation, and regardless of if they have the dog or not, they are responsible for clearing or paying the citation. They can redeem their dog, I doubt they will. And the dog is safe at the shelter.

Now see here is the thing. Had Mr. Ghetto not come off as a uncaring hardass to begin with, I might have cut him some slack. Ask most officers and they will agree that when someone treats them with a little respect or courtesy or even slight humbleness, we will more often that not be lenient. But come off as a jerk, billy-bad-attitude or just plain jackass and no, we will not leave you with just a warning. And depending on your level of attitude will gauge the level of what we will do.

Be nice to me, I'll be nice to you. It's kind of hard to be nice to someone when they are spitting cuss words into your face.

This day wasn't over yet, not by a LONG SHOT! This was just my first call.

Stay tuned for the next installment of "Failure to Communicate" or "Failure to Communcate II When to call the Cops"....It only gets worse....

(in other words I have Stand-by tonight and better get some sleep before I get called out at the ass crack of midnight to drive around in the dark looking for dog knows what while everyone else is sleeping. Hummm....think I'll have to include a couple Standby Blogs soon.)

Emu Love

This happened awhile back, but I have been meaning to tell this story.

I was on patrol in my normal beat and listening to the calls being given to other officers in their beats. I heard one being given to 471, who was fairly new in the field. It was called in as a loose Emu. Apparently this bird bird had gotten out of it's fence and was holding a family hostage in their own home. Well Kind of. It was a big scary bird in their front yard.

471 was en route to the location. I knew he had no experience what so ever with these birds so I thought I would offer him some assistance. I gave him a call and thought I heard a small bit of relief in his voice when I asked him if he wanted me to come assist. I'm not saying I am an expert with these birds, but having a little experience is better than none at all.

So I headed out to give him a hand.

When I arrived, I pulled up to the address and immediately saw 471's truck in the CP's driveway. Initially I didn't see the Emu OR 471. But when I parked I was able to see that the Emu was standing right next to the driver's door and 471 was still inside the truck.

Try to imagine a 6ft tall bird staring directly at you through your vehicle window. That is what this bird was doing. These birds can be unnerving because of their size. And we, as ACOs have heard plenty of horror stories about them too.

I slipped on my leather gloves and grabbed my catch pole while keeping an eye on the Emu. His attention was suddenly drawn to my truck and he rushed over to my door.

His neck feathers where fluffed up and he was making a chortling noise from deep inside. I rolled down my window a little to see what he would do. He kept chortling and kind of bobbing his head. I spoke easy to him and slowly opened my door. As my door opened I carefully and slowly pushed him back with the door. He kept right on chortling bobbing his head but backing up. I eased my catch pole out and held it in front of me to be ready if I needed it. Needed it for what I wasn't sure, but I felt better at least having it.

I slowly eased out of my seat and my feet touched ground. All my movements were slow and easy, keeping eye contact with Emu and speaking softly. He had backed up as my door opened more and finally I was out and we were face to face. He chortled and bobbed and I spoke softly. I used my catch pole to push him back a little more, and he moved.

I was able to close my door and stood there looking at him for a moment. While I was looking at him, I noticed that behind him just down the fence line was a spot that the wire was down. BINGO! That's where he came from. 471 had at some point gotten out of his truck and was on the other side of mine. We briefly discussed the game plan to gently herd Big Bird back into his pasture. Big Bird was being very cooperative and moved down the road to where the fence was down. I walked him into the pasture and 471 picked up the down portion of fence and got it secured. Big bird made a sad sounding chortle when I slipped back through the wire. I stood there a little while stroking his neck and talking to him. Suddenly he dropped down to the ground in a laying position, bobbing his head and making all kinds of little noises. He continued to let me pet his neck and head. It was really quite an experience!

Just about that time the owner came walking through the pasture with his ranch dog. We told him about the fence. He would make sure it got fixed properly. He did tell us that he had a few cows in the pasture, but had moved them and thinks that was how the Emu got out. Apparently the Emu had been with the cows and when they left he got lonely. The owner was going to move the Emu to another pasture where there were some other cows and maybe he wouldn't be lonely anymore.

We cleared that scene with a positive Emu experience.

I did some research when I got back to the shelter on Emus and was laughing at what I discovered. The Emu was exhibiting what is typical "mating dance behavior". The neck fluffing, noises, laying down. He was maybe trying to make me his girlfriend.

Why I Am An Animal Control Officer and Why I Do This Job

"I don't know how you do this job!"

"I could never do your job."

"How do you do what you do?"

I can't recall how many times I have been asked these questions when on a call or even when I am anywhere and in uniform. Or when someone finds out what I do.

My most standard answer is, "I just do." Or, "somebody has to do it." This isn't far from the truth. To me it's like asking why am I left-handed. It's just a part of who I am.

To be honest, when I think about it, I have a hard time answering this.

I think I heard somewhere that what we do is "Save animals from people and save people from animals." That only encompasses a small portion of what we do, of what I do.

Another apparent shocker to the public is that I am a woman. I frequently get the stunned look when a door is opened, or I get out of the truck by the calling party. "They sent you? A woman to do this?" Granted it is usually elderly individuals or other women who say this, but really? Why not?

I'm sure to the scores of cars driving by as I am picking up some animal that has been hit by a car (sometimes multiple times), not only is the horrified look for the animal I am removing, but that I am a "girl". And "girls" just don't do icky things like that.

So why do I do this?

First, it's all about the animals. I have always had animals in my life. I feel a part of me is missing if I don't have animals around me. Since I was little I was always rescuing sick, injured, or too young animals and birds. Nursing them back to health and finding them proper homes. I was also involved in 4-H, horse showing, and any other activity that involved animals. This I'm sure drove my mother crazy. She likes animals, but I wouldn't say she was crazy about them. And she showed a lot of patience and tolerance when I was growing up and bringing strays and wild life home, thanks mom!

Somehow I think this had me pegged at a young age as being destine to be an Animal Control Officer. I did try the Veterinary field as a vet assistant for several years. And while I did enjoy my work, it still wasn't completely me. I was also very interested in law enforcement my entire life. Somewhere along the line it clicked about Animal Control. The idea rolled around in my head for several years before I finally did something about it. I became an Animal Control Officer.

But how do I do it? Seeing sick, injured, dead, neglected, abused and abandoned animals. Dealing with Aggressive animals that want to eat my face. Dealing with people who cause the problems and the angry people who think we don't do our jobs good enough.

I would be lying if I said there weren't days that I wonder why the hell I put up with these people, or how I can stand to see another sick or injured animal due to someone negligence or indifference.

There are days when I want to scream, or cry or punch someone in the face. There are days when I get angry having to defend what I do. Defend decisions I am forced to make.

But then there are those days, even those moments, that make it all worth it. To see an animal happily reunited with it's owner after being lost, an animal that was in a bad situation go home to a new great family who will love them forever. To save just one makes it worth it. To get one out of a bad situation. To know that I made a difference in one life, saves one life. Or even end one life, humanely, with unconditional love and freedom from pain.

But how do I deal with all the death? Picking up dead animals. Euthanizing animals. Having grown up with animals, lots of animals, and trying to nurture sick or injured animals, I early on was exposed to the facts of life and death. I won't say that death doesn't bother me. It's never easy. No matter how many times you go through it. But, I think I have a realistic understanding of death. And I very rarely get grossed out by roadkill. Part of the trick is to not personalize it. Don't think about it too much.

It's almost a pre-requisite to have a good, although bizzare at times, sense of humor for this job. I'm glad I have one.

So does this explain why I am an Animal Control Officer? Does this explain how and why I can do this job?

Not entirely.

I guess it's not something that can be completely explained. It just is.

This job is definitely not one just anyone can do.

Another Happy Ending

Today I got a strange call. I was working in the South part of the county, in one of the not so great parts of town. The report was for an injured dog. Reported as a dog being stabbed by the owner and thrown in a dumpster.

I arrived on scene and made contact with three people. One was the calling party (CP), the other two reportedly were the ones who witnessed the dog being thrown in the dumpster. The CP and the woman were trying to both talk to me as I got out to check the dog over. The woman was telling me how the dog owner was saying that he was going to kill the dog. Then she said that he tried to put the dog in a trash can but she told him that she didn't want to see any of that and he needed to go somewhere else. But, she added she felt bad. She said she was scared, because he is a gang member. She described him and said he had on a red bandanna. She didn't see the dog get stabbed.

I examined the dog and found that other than a few small punctures on his left front foreleg, he seemed to be in pretty good shape. He was such a sweetie pie too. He didn't fuss or flinch when I picked him up and put him on my truck. I examined the wounds closer. They didn't look like stab wounds at all. They really looked more like dog bite wounds. Like another dog bit him. He didn't have any other marks on him. I gave him a couple "cookies" and settled him in.

I returned to the CP and witnesses. I was trying to get further details from the witnesses. I also needed them to give me statements in order to have a case. Well the CP didn't see anything, he was just the one that made the call. The woman, suddenly claimed that she didn't see anything because she was now "asleep" in the back of her boyfriend's SUV while he was fixing it. The boyfriend, who spoke no english, according the the woman didn't want to get involved. She could give a description of the guy, but since they, she and her boyfriend, frequent this particular area, they didn't want any trouble.

I told her that without witness statements, there wasn't much I could do other that get the dog seen by a vet. She still wasn't willing to give a statement. She asked couldn't I just have the guy arrested. Without something to base it on, No.

I was done.

I wasn't going to waste anymore time trying to convince her to do the right thing and the dog needed to get out of there. The CP was just glad that I was taking the dog to get it help.

So I left. I drove around for a few minutes to see if I saw anyone matching the description. Nope.

The dog wasn't in too back of shape so I was able to finish another couple priority calls in the area. One was for an injured duck and another was another injured dog. The duck was definitely injured. Two broken legs. The other dog was a tiny FAT chihuahua with a mammary cyst. My last call was for a tiny kitten who also turned out to be sick.

Well, I finally got to the shelter and got everyone unloaded. My "stabbed" pitty behaved so well. Even when I was putting him away, he showed no aggression towards any of the other dogs. He had great manners.

I put him in the Medical Ward so the vet could take a look at him the next morning. I had a Senior Officer take a look at him and she agreed that he wasn't in dire need of medical treatment right away, otherwise I would have transported him to the ER vet. She also agreed that his wounds looked more like dog bites than stab wounds.

Why would someone make stab wounds on the foreleg where it's mostly bone? The injuries just didn't jive.

So later when I finally got home, I did my usual browsing Craigslist Lost and Found. And the above picture jumped out at me.

This was my Sweetie Pie Pitty! I read the details and looked up the lost location and compared it with where I picked him up. Less than a mile!

Despite it being 10pm at night I called the number of the owner.

I had obviously woke him up, but once I explained who I was and why I was calling he got excited. I told him all about the circumstances and the injuries. He was just glad that he was now safe and he would be coming home. He told me his daughters have been praying for the 5 days he has been missing and some miracle would bring their dog home.

I was happy that I could provide that miracle.

Sweetie Pie Pitty will be going home as soon as the kennels open up so that he can go home to his girls.

I love happy endings.

Wild Thing, your just a Big Pain

Ever since humans have become "civilized" and created their "civilizations", there have been those who feel the yearning to get back to "Nature". Or someone want to live in the "Country".

Never mind that their entire lives they have lived in the city or sheltered neighborhoods of cookie cutter houses that all look alike row after row. The closest most people have come to wildlife is on TV or at the zoo.

Then they chose to move "closer to nature".

At first they are shocked, then amused when raccoons, opossums, or skunks show up to munch on their dog or cat's food that has been left out. Then it's SOOO KWOOT to leave extra food out, so they can snap a few pictures to show family and friends. Look how back to nature we are!

It's cute for a couple of weeks or even months, but then they begin to notice that one raccoon or skunk or opossum has told his buddies that a new fast-food joint has opened up, and come on let's belly up to the Buffet! Soon there are families of raccoons literally banging on doors and windows, demanding food. Skunk families decide to move in under the house or shed to raise their families closer to the food supply. And we all know when some thing upsets them, "POOF" the house becomes filled with a noxious odor. Even the squirrels have seemed to come calling more frequently.

The family dog is now getting sprayed on a regular basis by skunks, skunks are tearing up flowerbeds looking for additional food. Raccoons are working on trying to break into the house, they know where the food comes from.

Then there are the coyotes. Always portrayed as sinister yard lurkers, just waiting to eat little dogs and cats. They aren't really. They are just following the food chain.

And we also have the occasional Mountain Lion.

Well, now the people who at first thought it was so "KWOOT" to have the "wild" right in their backyard are now realizing that it's not cute and can be down right dangerous.

They just don't realize that they have unwittingly changed the food chain, and invited the natural food chain into their backyard.

Even deer, seemingly harmless, who hasn't seen Bambi and want a Bambi to hang out in there yard. So they start leaving vegetable scraps out to attract the deer. The deer are getting fed so well by all this "extra" food, that Does are fawning 2 sometimes even 3 babies. This population increase now attract dangerous predators, such as....yep..you guessed it...Mountain Lions.

Not only are there now apex predators, now there are too many deer for the food supply. And diseases are spread faster among this larger population. More deer to run across roads to be hit by cars, causing accidents. And lets not forget the frightened deer that crash through windows into homes and businesses causing not only injuries to themselves, but lots and lots of property damage.

So now what?

Well, these animals need to be Controlled! We must call Animal Control!

They want this problem that they caused to be solved by us. Control these wild animals!

What was once Kwoot now needs to go away!

And then the blame game. "I never feed the wildlife! I stopped leaving food out." and, "Oh that animal lover down the street, SHE keeps leaving food out and attracting all these Pests!"

It is not harmless to feed wildlife. ANY wildlife.

Another extreme example of Humans creating Wildlife problems? Look at the Bears in Tahoe and Yosemite.

So where do I come in?

I am sent out to shoot skunks that are trapped or sick in backyards. This is the only way we are allowed to handle these potential Rabies carriers. Yes. Rabies. Skunks and Bats in this area are the most common Rabies carriers.

What is also common is Distemper in Raccoons. This disease often mimics the symptoms of Rabies. Rabies is fortunately pretty rare in raccoons in this area. Sick raccoons are captured and taken to the shelter for Humane Euthanasia. Trapped raccoons that are healthy can usually be relocated to a nearby Nature area.

Recently, I had a call for trapped raccoons. They were 2 young little guys that were not old enough to be released. When I picked them up they were scared and crying for their mother. But the homeowner insisted that they were damaging his lawn, he wanted them GONE!

So they took a ride to Wildlife Care, a wonderful local organization of volunteer wildlife rehabilitators. It was a little sad, knowing that their mother was most likely lurking nearby.

Oh and when I asked, he said his wife stopped leaving the cat food out "awhile ago". Uh huh.

I have also picked up opossums that have inadvertently gone in the traps set for "feral/stray cats". These guys are relatively harmless, they just look and tend to smell nasty.

Squirrels, well, we tend to only pick up sick or injured. And believe me I have the scar to prove that they can be VERY ungrateful and nasty when you are rescuing them.

I pick up countless road kills, wildlife that has been killed or injured by the family pet, and wildlife that have been poisoned by household pesticides.

And there are always calls from people who want us to Get Rid of IT!

Wild Turkeys wandering through suburban upscale neighborhoods munching on carefully manicured lawns and colorful flowers.

Squirrels running rampant across the roofs of brand new McMansions. One lady wanted me to come out and "control" these squirrels that were running across her home's roof. She insisted they were going to damage the "imported roof tiles". I advised her that this isn't something we do. Her reply, "Well your Animal Control Aren't you!? Your suppose to Control Animals!" Then she told me her tax dollars pay my salary and that if I want going to control these animals I was just useless.

Alrighty then.

I always wonder when people use the "My tax dollars pay your salary" bit, so what do my tax dollars do? do they pay my salary? How does that figure?

Nevermind. That makes my head hurt.

It is possible to live with wildlife. Just don't feed them. Don't leave food out for them or stray cats. You feed strays, you feed wildlife. Even feeding you own pet, don't leave food out, especially over night.

Check out the link to Wildlife Care for more tips on living with wildlife and what they do for the community.

Learn how to live with the Wild, and be a part of conserving the Nature you wanted to live around.

Well They do that on TV!! I seen that on That Animal TV Channel!

How many times have I heard that? More times than I can even remember.

I had one call that the woman was outraged that I wouldn't crawl under her house to go after what she described as a "Big Ol' Vicious Pitbull". She watched that Animal Channel show. They do it all the time. Well ma'am, we don't.
There are just certain things that we are not authorized to do, it's a safety thing. I'm going to use a big word here, LIABILITY. We don't crawl under houses, period. We don't go up in attics or roof crawl spaces. We don't climb trees or ladders and we don't climb down cliffs.

Number one, we don't have the equipment or in some cases the special training to do half these things. Number two again, it's a safety issue. And Number three, the possibility of property damage.
I very recently had a situation that got this response. Call was simply given as a sick opossum laying in a tree. I get to the call and met with the home owner. She looks at me a little shocked and kind of looks behind me as if expecting someone else to be following me. I asked her to show me where the opossum was located. She leads me through her house and begins telling me how last week she has another opossum that died in her backyard and we had come out to pick it up. Now she was concerned that this on was also sick and would die. She told me how she has taken the garden hose and sprayed it to see if it would move. It did but not very much.

Now we are in her backyard. she take me over to the side of her yard. She then points upward towards the tall branches of this FREAKING HUGE tree. Where she was indicating had to be a least 25 to 30 feet up and the tree was even taller than that.

I still didn't see it. She keep saying "It's there, it must be there, It's in a hole up there."

Oookay. I'm not disputing that there MAY have been a opossum up there at one time, but it wasn't there now. But she was insistent. I told her regardless, I wasn't going to be able to get to it anyway. I explained the policies about our restrictions. It didn't seem to sink in at first, because she asked if I was going to call someone to bring equipment to get up there. I explained it to her again. And then she said it. "I've seen that animal show and they are always getting animals out of trees."

You know, I am half glad that these programs are on the air, because they have given the Animal Care and Control agencies a really good boost in the public eye, BUT on the other side of the coin, I think that the public thinks that some of the heroic rescues that are broadcasted are the norm for every agency. This is I believe far from true. But they saw it on TV so it must be.

Anyway, I told her that if is comes down and is dead or alive and still in her yard we will come back out. She seemed to understand, after explaining it to her, twice.

Another time I had to go through this was also recently, just a couple days before the last. This one was a DOA deer in a creek. Well actually it was in a large corrugated drainage pipe. Another officer had received the call the evening before, but due to the late time, he called and spoke to the calling party. She apparently told him that all it would take is two officers and some rope. Ummm...not.

I got to the location and it's not accessibly by the road. I spent a lot of time on the phone talking to the caller who insisted that it was easy to get to, all we would have to do is shimmy down the embankment and we can get to the carcass in the pipe.

She even said she was able to get down there in sandals. I don't think so. Not all the way at least.

One side of the road is thick with ivy and thorny blackberry brier, as well as a 6 foot fence. The other side of the road was a steep 12-15 foot drop to the creek bed, The embankment covered in slick oak leaves and sticker bushes. No trail, no path, just a 90 degree drop.

So I call her back and let her know there is no way for me to safely get down there. She starts to tell me that it is county property and that we are responsible for removing it and that we are just going to be getting a lot of complaints as it starts to rot and smell.

I again tell her that there is just no way to get down there and bring it up. I gave her the whole safety issue speech. She still wasn't convinced. She then told me that I could access the other side of the fence in the gated community that she lives in.

So I followed her directions, as she made it sound like it would be very easy and simple.

It wasn't.

She said there was a path to a trail behind her house and her neighbor's and it led right to the pipe. Ok. The "path" was several stepping stones between her house and her neighbor's house. The "trail was what the deer and maybe other wildlife followed to get to the creek. Down a slope, that went behind her neighbor's house. Now the fence was about 4 feet from the side of the house, and there was a huge air conditioning unit between the fence and the house wall. About a foot of space if even that between the fence and the AC. I was already thinking that there was no way that even two officers could drag dead weight deer up this incline and past this AC. But I was committed (or should have been committed for going this far).

I walked down to the edge of the creek bank. It's about a 15 foot drop straight down. And there are all these jagged boulders at the bottom. Ok this is NOT going to work.

So I called the CP back. I still haven't seen this DOA deer, and I'm just wondering how the heck she saw it. She had told me that she could see it from her house, but there was no way as her house was on the other side of her neighbor's house and unless she has x-ray vision, there is no way to see the pipe.

I told her that we were not going to be able to retrieve this deer. I told her were I was and that I didn't even see the deer. Her reply was that if I squatted down and bent over to the side I should be able to see it somewhere in the middle of the pipe.

OH come on!!

She again starts talking about the smell and how we are going to get lots and lots of complaints when it starts to smell. And then she tells me how it's going to attract wild animals like coyotes and vultures and who knows what else.

Um, ok, this is where I usually interject with my "Live in a nature area next to the River and Wildlife area" speech. But I didn't. I just told her that nature will just have to take it's course.

I had already spent close to a hour and a half on this call. A DOA call. I was done.

She did thank me for trying, but had to throw in that we will be getting all these calls.

Another time, two other officers had previously responded to this call for a DOA deer "in CP's backyard".

NOT.

ACO1 got the call first on a rainy day. Deer carcass is described in her notes as being down a steep embankment, will need two officers to respond.

Ok, so ACO1 and ACO2 return on second day, still rainy. Report says officers made attempt to retrieve carcass, unsuccessful.

Too steep, muddy and slippery. Hazard to officers. This was explained to CP that officer safety prevents AC from retrieving carcass. So call is closed.

NOPE.

CP calls back a few days later and speaks to my supervisor. My supervisor send me out to assess the situation. I'm instructed to call him to report if recovery is not possible.

OK, not sure why my fellow officers notes were in question. I trust their judgement. But I'm not going to argue with my supervisor either. So off I go.

This is a upscale neighborhood with many custom homes in a wooded and very hilly area. CP takes me out onto her multi-level redwood deck, over to the FAR corner and points down this ravine to creek at the bottom, across the creek is a tree, now if I lean this way juuuuust right I can see the hindquarters of a deer carcass partially behind a tree.

Yep, about 50 feet of more, hard to judge actually with steep angle of the ravine. This would require rappelling gear. Then the matter would be about how to get the carcass up through the thick and not to mention painful blackberry bushes.

And I know the area, the creek looks innocent enough from WAAAAY up here, but I happen to know that it's moving fast, it's cold and has about 2-3 feet of boot sucking silt on the bottom.

So I break the news to the CP. There is no was we can risk officers to go down for the carcass. I explain the hazards to her and that our department doesn't have the equipment to retrieve the carcass.

She isn't satisfied, she wants to know why I can't just do down there and cut it up and bring it back up. She watches those Animal Channel Shows all the time! (Insert eye roll here)

So I get my Supervisor on the phone, describe the situation to him and let the CP talk to him. She hands me back the phone after about 5 minutes, long enough for him to tell her the same thing I did.

So I politely told her that this was part of being one with nature in a wooded area. As I was leaving I also politely advised her that the carcass would most likely be gone in a few days or a couple weeks, especially since it appeared that a very large predator had already consumed most of the soft parts of the carcass. I had just a week prior to this picked up a Deer carcass about 5 miles from this location in a similar residential area that had very distinctive punchers in the skull and neck with the abdomen completely cleaned out. I patted her cute little fluffy-kins Bichon on the head and left the scene.