I've written two stories about cats up in trees, so this is a first. Got a call during my swing shift for a Sheriff Assist. Minimal details given to me were that the Sheriff got a call about a dog that chased a man up a tree. Whereabouts of the dog unknown, sheriff on scene.
My first thoughts are, it's dark and they don't know where the dog is. Typically the dog is gone. But I head out regardless. As I am en route I get an update from County central. Deputies have the dog confined. OK cool, that makes it easier. And at least the deputies are still on scene.
I arrived on scene and took note of the deputy's car pulled up close to a chain link fence. I rolled up next to the car and spoke with the deputy. She got out and pointed her flashlight towards the inner wood fence on the property. Out of a opening in the wood fence popped a light brown head. The dog barked furiously at us. That was our "culprit".
The female deputy proceeded to catch me up on what the situation was. She pointed her flash light up into the large mulberry tree in the front yard. I could make out a large shadowy blob perched in the branches. The dog chased the guy up into the tree. And the guy refuses to come out of the tree. Meanwhile they can't do much of anything with the dog charging them in the yard. They aren't even sure if the man lives at the house, or if the dog lives at the house. The man sat perched up on a branch and another deputy was trying to coax him down or at least trying to get him to talk to him. The guy up in the tree was mumbling and chatting to himself. From our position it appeared that a homeless guy picked what appeared to be a vacant house for his crash pad. From the way the dog was comfortable going in and out of the space in the fence, to me it was fairly evident the dog lived there.
I took a catch pole and entered the yard through the closed gate. The deputies stayed on the outside of the fence. The dog was standing at the corner of the house barking at them. I walked up and yelled at him, "Hey, come here!" He looked at me, barked once and turned running back to his hole. He stopped, turned and barked at me as I walked up to him calling him to come here. Funny how most dogs, even ones that are acting aggressive will run from us when we yell at them and come after them. He darted back into his hole and I could hear him and another dog barking. I had one of the deputies bring a large garbage can around to block the hole. I was able to peek into the backyard and it was obvious the dog lived there.
Even with the dog secure, the guy in the tree still refused to come down. He continued to sit up in his perch, singing, moaning, and carrying on a conversation with himself. The deputies called the Fire Department at this point to help get the guy out of the tree. I was kept on scene to make sure the dog didn't get back out. Fire arrived and when they couldn't talk the guy out of the tree they put a ladder up.
It was at about this time that Hera, my k-9 partner, provided me with a slightly embarrassing moment. The fire fighters turned a couple spot lights on up in the tree. Hera who's window was down enough to have her head out has remained quiet the whole time we were on this call apparently saw the guy in the tree for the first time. She started barking, her alert bark to let me know something was amiss. This caused everyone to stop and look. One of the deputies said, " It's OK it's just the officers dog." I assured Hera and she was quiet.
He wouldn't come down the ladder so a firefighter went up and helped him get down. He had no ID and apparently they couldn't get any information from him. So the guy would be taken to the hospital to get checked out and maybe by then they could get an ID on him.
I was the last one there, everyone cleared the scene while I was writing a notice for the dog owner about his fence. Just as I was getting out of my truck to post the notice and get out of there the owner showed up!
I told the dog owner what had happened. Turns out the guy in the tree was the dog owner's uncle Willie. According the the owner Uncle Willie is a little schizo. He was shocked though because he said the dogs know Uncle Willie. Uncle Willie lives with him. I told him that his dog is safely secured in his backyard and I wasn't sure where they had taken his Uncle. He said he would find out and get him home safe. He thanked me for sticking around to let him know what was going on.
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