My "K-9" Partner

One of the bonuses to my job is I have the opportunity to bring one of my own dogs to work with me on a regular basis. We are allowed to bring our dogs from October to May. This time frame is due to the summer heat we get here. Not a really good public example if we have a dog in our truck when the temperatures can be up to 113 in the simmer, I mean summer. Our dogs also must be well behaved. They become a part of our public image.

Hera is my "Shelter Dog". I adopted her about 3 weeks after starting at Animal Control. Hera is a Rottweiler Doberman mix. We call her a Rotterman or a Dobiewiler. Hera loves to go to work. And she is a great example to the community about two of the "bad" breeds can be wonderful dogs. Any and every opportunity I get to use her a a teaching tool I do.

Hera's owner decided to not redeem her because it cost to much. So she lived in the adoption kennel waiting for her new home. I saw her on my first day. And she saw me. She would get so excited when I was cleaning the kennel. She was still pretty young, barely over a year old, very much a puppy still. It was love at first sight for both of us. One of the kennel attendants noticed how she would react to me and kept teasing me that "She's your dog." I tried to deign it, and even showed her to people coming in to look for a family dog. Even potential adopters remarked how much this dog seemed to want to be with me.

So it was inevitable. I talked to my kids and my boyfriend (who is now my husband).And the decision was made. Hera was getting her new forever home.

Hera joined the family and quickly adjusted to our family. I was a little concerned about Shadow, our hundred year old Golden Retriever (not really but he's 14!) at first. But Hera loved him and he her. She actually brought a little bit of a spark back into him. The cats were another story. I was sure that our female Siamese, Princess Cloe, was going to smother me in my sleep. Bucky, our male Siamese was less pissy and even allowed Hera to pin him down and "clean his ears out. She still does this on occasion. Or he taunts her into chasing him around the house.

Hera also has adjusted to having chickens. She learned that if you play too rough with them they stop moving and making noise. So now she just pretend stalks them until to Rooster squawks at her and then she leaves them alone. She also like to tell the horses what to do. As long as they are on their side of the fence. Otherwise she is running for me or her "Daddy" to save her from the giant dogs.

Hera's got a little sister now too. Milly, a Treeing Walker Coonhound, recently joined our family. Partners in crime!

Hera loves to go to work, she hears the word work and she is at the door. Once we get to the shelter she struts to the Officer Office and must say hello to my supervisor and my co-workers first thing.

When it's time to hit the road, she gets in her seat and waits for her vest to be put on. It's also a seat beat for her for safety.

She is exhausted when we get home, even though she spends about half of the day sleeping, and goes straight to bed with her daddy. When she is home she is daddy's girl. When she is at work she is my partner.

I couldn't have asked for a better K-9 Partner.

Bunnies Bunnies EVERYWHERE!!!

A couple months before Easter, I had a call to investigate a report for unhealthy conditions for rabbits. There weren't many details on my call sheet. So I'm thinking someone has a couple rabbits that they area not cleaning up their cage. Then I took a second look at the call address. The location was at a 2-bit horse boarding place that we have had MANY calls out to for various neglect issues. This place continues to have on going issues that always seem to get just under the wire of being OK. If I had my way, the place would be shut down. I'm still working on that.

Anyway, back to the rabbits.

So I'm still thinking that this is going to be something simple.

I get to the boarding facility and as I am going to open the gate I run into one of the women who I investigated in the past. "B" was very friendly and helpful today, despite the fact that I almost took her three horses away from her for various reasons. I asked her if she knew where the rabbits were. Oh boy did she. We both parked out vehicles and she showed me the way to a huge tent near the barn. This tent is one of those portable tarp and pvc deals that some people use as a temporary car port. I didn't even have to get very close to see that this was much worse and a bigger problem than I had initially thought.

The front of the tent was open and I could see multiple cages in 3 rows stacked on top of each other. I immediately noticed two dead rabbits in the first cages in the middle row. "B" let me know that she had called the CP (person who had called the complaint in) and she was on her way. She was also trying to call the property owner. B said that the rabbit owner had been gone for several days now and she wasn't sure when she was returning. She said that she was told that the rabbit owner was out of town and may not return for several weeks. I asked B if she knew who was taking care of the owner’s rabbits in her absence and she said that she didn’t think that anyone had been asked and if they were they probably said no due the prior bad attitudes between rabbit owner and other boarders.

The boarding facility is a self-care facility for mostly horses. Some horse owners have a few other animals, such as chickens and ducks. According to B, the rabbit owner owns only the rabbits.

So I began to assess the rabbits in their cages. I initially counted 62 live rabbits and 5 dead rabbits in cages inside the tent. The inside of the tent smelled very strongly of urine, feces and wet feed and bedding. None of the cages appeared the have been cleaned out in several weeks or even months. Feces was built up beneath cage floors into cages from the litter pans. The floor of the tent was covered in, mud, feces, old food, water, urine and down one row the floor was 2-3 inches deep in liquid mud. Under the bottom cages the feces was several inches thick from the ground to inside the bottom of cages. Flies, bugs and small gnat like flies were everywhere, including on the live rabbits.

I found most of the water bottles were empty, many had mold growing inside, several were broken and several rabbits had no water bottles at all. Very few rabbits had food. Some that had food that was wet and appeared to have been in their feeders for a long period of time. Most of the rabbits had no food at all.

The CP arrived and I spoke with her. She said that she had been at the property yesterday and had seen the dead rabbits. She also found the rabbits without water and no food. She showed me that some of the rabbits that she did give water to, had no water as many of the water bottles were broken and leaking. She also showed me the food barrel. The large blue barrel was empty and the only other feed was in a small red coffee can that was only about ¼ full of feed. There were no other sources of feed for the rabbits. And what there was was in no way going to feed this many rabbits. The CP also said that the owner was gone possibly out of town and not returning for a few weeks. The CP also stated that the rabbit owner had disposed of several dead rabbits in the creek next to the boarding facility. She showed me where they were located. I saw about 7 dead rabbits in a pile on the bank of the creek about 50’ from the tent. None of these deceased rabbits showed signs of heavy decomposition at this time.

I called my Senior Officer 468 to advise him of the conditions and how to precede with this many rabbits in the conditions they were in. I was advised to take pictures, which I had already started to do. 460 would be sent to assist with documenting and seizing of the rabbits. 468 would have ACAs prepare an area for the rabbits to be housed and he would be advising Supervisor 473. 471 was also en route to my location to assist with the seizure. I also at this point began to place numbered cards on the live rabbits cages for ID purposes.

I was also told by another boarder that there were more dead rabbits just behind the tent. She showed me where they were located. At the north west corner of the tent there where 3 more deceased rabbits. One rabbit showed very little decomposition, one was decomposing and one was completely decomposed (hair and a few bones left).

471 arrived and I showed him the conditions that the live rabbits were in and the areas where the dead rabbits were. We also walked the creek bank from the barn to the bridge. No other dead rabbits were found. Another boarder had stated that there may have been other rabbits tossed in the creek but may have floated away by now.

460 Arrived and I showed her the live rabbits and their conditions as well as the Dead rabbits.
I filled out and posted a POST-SEIZURE NOTICE for 597.1 and 8.08.060 for the Live rabbits.
471, 460 and myself began processing and impounding the live rabbits. Using the number cards I had placed on the cages, each rabbit was ID’d by color and ear tattoo if they had one, and individually boxed for transport. Obvious injuries and signs of illness were also noted so that the Shelter Vet could be notified of their immediate need for evaluation and care.

The property owner arrived. The property owner said that he did not realize the rabbits were in such poor conditions since this is a self care boarding property and he doesn’t have contact or care for the boarders animals. I asked him when the last time he heard from the rabbit owner. He said that it was Wednesday or Thursday of last week (4 to 5 days ago) he last saw her on the property.

Once all of the live rabbits were removed and ready to transport, we documented and ID’d the dead rabbits inside the tent, near the outside corner of the tent and on the creek bank.
A Grand Total of 66 live rabbits were removed from the tent, 6 dead rabbits were removed from the tent, 2 dead rabbits were removed from the outside of the tent and 8 rabbits were removed from the creek bank.

It took all three of our dog trucks to transport all those rabbits to the shelter. The ACAs had done a awesome job setting up the stalls in the shelter's barn with cages to house the rabbits. And they had unloaded 471's truck already and were waiting to help unload 460 and my trucks.

It took us about 5 hours to load the rabbits from the scene and a couple more to unload. Then a couple hours for 460 and I to input all the rabbits into the computer and make pen cards for each one.

The vet checked the rabbits that we had alerted her to needing immediate attention first. Unfortunately about 5 rabbits needed to be PTS because they were in such poor health. Then the vet checked the rest. She determined that the rest needed basic care, good food and water and they would be fine.

We tried everything to locate the owner. Including the media. This case, as well as another ACO's case about 20-plus abandoned cats at a church, hit the news in hopes that someone would see the stories and know something more. No such luck.

Our local Rabbit Rescue FUR stepped in to help with the care, socialization, assessment and the soon to be adoption promotion for the rabbits while they were in our care at the shelter.

The rabbits would be available for adoption around Easter time, BUT it's not our policy to adopt out during Easter. For the obvious reasons. Rabbits could be adopted but wouldn't be able to go home until after Easter, and after they were spayed and neutered.

I'm very please to report that ALL the rabbits got adopted, and none have been returned.

FURR and the Shelter Staff did a fabulous job of promoting and screening the adoptions.

Red Dog

Red Dog was mentioned in previous story Eat My Face. And the following post about Cops and Dogs I of coarse mentioned, well cops and dogs.

Now I guess you could say both of those stories have blended together in Red Dog's story.

As I previous mentioned. Red Dog was not a very friendly dog. Well Red Dog's owner bailed her dogs out of "doggie jail" after that Sunday incident. All 5 dogs. Ya, I know County Regulations are they can only own 4. Don't ask me how that flew out the shelter door. Not my call.
Well exactly 2 weeks later, on a Sunday AGAIN, we get another call. SSD again with several pit bulls loose and aggressive. They were chasing people and had attacked a couple cats, killing one and the other one was not located yet. As I was responding, I kept getting different reports, 2 dogs, 5 dogs, 3 dogs....no one seemed to be able to nail down how many dogs there actually were.
I arrived on scene to 5-6 SSD cruisers blocking off the Court where they thought they had all the dogs sort of contained.
I already had this nagging feeling, 3 to 5 dogs, pit bulls, the location. I just knew it.
I made contact with the Lt. on scene. She told me that there was one dog that was in a yard to the left side and two more at the end of the court. They weren't sure of their exact location. I told her I thought I might know the dogs and quickly explained.
I decided to go for the easy one dog first.
Catch pole in hand, compared to the shotgun and pepper ball gun armed SSDs, I went into the backyard. All the residents had already been told to stay in their homes and bring their own pets in. I was kind of hoping I was wrong about the dogs. Sure enough, Daisy peeked through a broken fence board at me. Daisy had been Red Dog's partner in wanting to eat my face. Today though she pretty much walked into my catch pole loop. But then I knew her name and yelled it at her. She knew she was busted and wasn't giving he any fight. I was actually able to put a leash on her and get her loaded in my truck. Officer 477, was also on her way to the area from across town, in case I needed help with multiple dogs.
So now I knew what or rather who I was up against. There were still four dogs unaccounted for, Tiny, Moomoo, Tiger and Red Dog.
I then went after the two dogs that were somewhere at the end of the court. In backyards. I need to mention that all of the houses on this court are quite nice, but their fences are crap. Falling down, full of holes, fence boards missing. Only one house had an actual nice new fence, except they had NO GATE.
Well, A couple of the SSDs helped me try to locate the missing dogs. We searched several backyards. I was about the give up when I decided to give a look behind a shed in the back corner of one yard. Sure enough I found Moomoo. She tried to charge out at me then cowered back in her hiding spot snarling at me. She screamed and alligator rolled when I catch poled her. You would have thought I was killing her. She fought me the whole way to the truck. I would stop and let her settle down and try to not let her choke.
Dogs will do that, twist and do the alligator roll trying to get away. We have to be able to know how to calmly deal with that.
I finally got her loaded and went back to double check the area behind the shed. I found Tiny. While I was struggling with Moomoo, Tiny had been right there, under a tarp covered BBQ inched from my legs. If he had wanted to, he could have bitten me. But he didn't and he let me put a leash on him and quietly walked with me to the truck. Complete opposite personality than Moomoo. He had also been the easy one from the call 2 weeks prior.
So now the question was, where are Tiger and Red Dog? Because of the prior history. I knew exactly where they lived. I had done the fence inspection, twice. I had failed it the first time and it passed the second time. Who knew that the owner wasn't going to separate the dogs like she said, and they were going to chew a hole through a 2x4 fence board and get out. The yard had been secured when I had inspected in and the owner had assured me that the young dogs would be separated from the older dogs. But with 5 dogs, 3 of which are barely a year old barely socialized and bored puppies, and an owner who is naive to the problem, shit happens.
I told the SSDs that I knew where the dogs lived and 2 cruisers and I headed over the the dog owners house. I called my Senior and asked him to look up the owner's phone number and advised him of what was going on. we arrived at the house and no one was home. No one except Tiger, who was barking from the backyard.
One of the SSD's was with me as we walked back from the side gate to the front door, the other one was still in his car advising the other units that we located one of the dogs at home.
Just as I was telling the SSD that I was concerned the Red Dog wasn't there and he was the worst of the pack, we had turned to head back to our vehicles. Red Dog came snarling and charging up from out of no where towards us. The SSD reached for his sidearm and I yelled "Red NO!" I guess this was enough at that moment to send him past us and off in the opposite direction of where he came from. And the chase was back on. The other unit took off and so was the SSD who had been with me.
I had to get to my truck, turn it around on this small residential street and follow. I was only what seemed like a minute behind the cruisers but they had faster more maneuverable vehicles than my truck. I had neighbors pointing the direction that they all went. I followed. I got a phone call from my Senior that the owner had been located and she was on her way. I saw a cruiser pull into the parking lot of the shopping center behind the houses and sped in that direction.
Just as I turned and pulled into the driveway of the parking lot I saw Red Dog charge out of the bushes along the retaining wall running towards an SSD with a shotgun. Two shots.
Red Dog went down.
It was over very quickly.

I went to Red Dog and checked for a pulse, even though I knew he was gone. Red was dead.
About that time I also got word that 477 had gotten to the original scene and had been found the severely injured cat. She had transported it to the Vet, but it died when she got there.
She arrived at my location at this point.
The SSD had another Lt arrive and a CSI was en route due to shots being fired. They had to process the scene. So all we could do at this point was stand by.
Then the owner arrived.
She didn't know what had happened at first. Since I had been in contact with her before I took her aside and told her what had happened. When I got to the point of what happened to Red Dog. She went hysterical. I was able to get her to calm down. And she did have a family member with her. But then she would get upset again. Especially when the Lt was trying to talk to her.
She wanted to see Red Dog. But we couldn't let her at that point. This upset her even more. I finally got her to go sit in her family member's vehicle. I thought I had gotten her calmed down. Then she would start screaming out the window at the SSDs.
I won't go into the details much other that the owner, in her state most likely wasn't thinking clearly. She did end up going to jail for the night because she wouldn't follow what the SSDs asked her to do, basically to calm down and wait until CSI and the Lt finished clearing the scene. And the little matter of trying to kick the Lt in the nards, three times. He even had her shoe print on his thigh.
I did feel for her. And do understand this, she is not what you would think of as a "typical pit bull owner". She is actually a very nice, professional woman.
When the scene was finally cleared, 477 and I carefully bagged Red Dog and loaded him into my truck.
I transported all the back to the shelter for intake.

A few days later the dog owner is at the shelter to try to get her dogs back. I let her know that she will have to have another yard inspection. I went back to the house and wrote out all the things that must be done before she could get any of the dogs back. Reinforced wire would need to be installed around the entire perimeter of the yard, so that the dogs cannot chew fence boards. As well as cement along the base of the wooden portions of the fence. Electric fence wire at bottom and midway up fence to keep dogs away from digging under or jumping or climbing on fence.
She was able to get family members together to help her do this over the following weekend.
I reinspected and she had done everything I had said. I didn't speak to her, but a family member since the owner had to be at work. The family member told me that she wished that the owner didn't have so many dogs. That she is overwhelmed with everything going on in her life and that is why the dogs are the way they are. She doesn't have time to socialize 4 large dogs and take them to training classes. I told her that maybe she should discuss this with the owner. The family member also asked me about my opinion of the behavior of the dogs. And I was frank with her.
Then I met with the dog at the shelter again.

Three dogs in the shelter, one at home. She now had the legal limit. She had talked to her family and now she asked me what I would recommend. I told her that I couldn't make this decision for her. I did recommend to her that she should consider only having two dogs at home. Her first possible choice was to allow Tiny to be put up for adoption. He was young, friendly, even in a shelter enviroment, the most social and probably the most trainable. With work he would probably be a really good dog for someone who could spend time with him. Her second choice was to have Moomoo Humanely Euth'd. The behavior she exhibited outside and inside the shelter indicated that she is very unsocial and unhandleable. A fear biter in the least. The owner was adamant about getting Daisy back home. She wasn't going to budge on that one. We didn't even discuss her since the owner made it know Daisy must come home.

In the end she decided to say goodbye to Moomoo.

Both Red Dog and his daughter, Moomoo,were picked up by the owner's family members and taken to their property in the foothills for burial.

It's a tragedy that all of this happened.

It's Been Awhile

It's been awhile since I have been able to write anything. Life, work and well Life. Anyway, I'm going to try to get some more put up here. I actually have a LOT of stories drafted to share. So stay tuned.

Cops and Dogs 1

Now I don't want it to seem like I have a poor opinion of our local cities Police Officers (PD), CHP, and County Sheriff Deputies (SSD). I don't. I worked for the Sheriff's Department before coming to Animal Control and know many city and county officers. One of my best friend's husband is a K9 Officer for one city. They really are good people for the most part.

Except it seems when it comes to pit bulls or dogs that look like pit bulls.

I'm sure some of it has to do with the bad press that pits get. And some of it has to do with the asshats they have to deal with owning "badass" pit bulls.

They seem to have some over driving paranoia that ALL pit bulls are going to eat their face.

And you know what they want to do with that? Pepper Spray it. Tazer it. OR Shoot it.

I cannot begin to tell you how many times we, ACOs have literally saved dogs from being shot by cops. and I'll tell dog owners, they were lucky we (Animal control) showed up or your dog would be dead.

Now I may be getting ahead of myself. And I don't want to really give the impression that cops are shoot first ask questions later when it comes to ALL pit bulls.

And Not ALL cops react this way. I even know a few that have transported pits in their cars.

But the pits who are out running around acting like knuckle heads.

These are the ones that have cops up in arms. Literally. Most recently especially.

A couple weeks ago, we had a couple of pit bulls that were running loose and bit a man near a high school. Cops arrived first then 460 arrived. She put a call into me since my beat is closest to hers and the Swing officer 455 who had just started working other calls in her area.

When I arrived there were cops everywhere around the high school and junior high. You would have thought there was a bank robber on the loose. I get a radio call from 460 that she had one of the dogs but the other was last seen running down a major street. Cops were pursuing that one. I turned down that street and saw 2 SSDs running down the side of the street and a squad car lights going also turn onto the street. Waaaaaaay up ahead I saw this black blur blasting through traffic. I pulled over long enough for one of the SDDs to jump into my truck with his shotgun and we were in pursuit. He's leaning out my window with his shotgun.

We chased the dog off that street onto a side street next to the schools and down towards the residential neighborhood. The dog ran straight to the first house of the neighborhood. Several, four or five, cop cars were suddenly there. Cops jumping out of their cars as the dog was trying to jump the low fence into the front yard of this house. Cops with their guns drawn where yelling at the young woman, who was nonchalantly standing on the front step smoking a cigarette, to get into her house. Instead, she walks over the the gate and lets the dog into the yard. A couple young men came out of the house. Turns out this is where the dogs live.

My thought at this was "HELLO??? COPS WITH GUNS ASSHATS!!" But I was kind of hanging back, since the cops seem to be taking things under thier control.

So during all of this the owner was at home hanging out. This house looks directly at the schools. The bite attack happened just down the street in front of the high school. So for a undetermined length of time these dogs were not home, running loose, bit someone, had cops arrive, animal control arrive, chased all around the school and neighborhoods, then chased back home. And the owners had no idea their dogs were gone.

The black dog, Trey and the white dog, Hitler. Were both impounded by us. The cops ran everyone in the house for warrants and probation checks.

I told the owner, when he asked me if he was going to be able to get his dogs back, that he was lucky that his dogs were alive. That if we hadn't been there the cops would have most definitely shot and killed his dogs. Yes, he could get his dogs back, AFTER a 10 day Quarantine for the bite, paying all the fees (impound, quarantine boarding, rabies vaccinations, licensing and at-large fine) AND a fence inspection. Then his dogs can come home. And if the bite victim filed a Vicious/Dangerous Dog Affidavit they couldn't be released until after the Court hearing if they are released at all. (As far as I know the Victim didn't file one, even though he was encouraged to do so). This was 460's call so I just helped her out with taking down information for the reports while she impounded the second dog.

I have many other stories about cops and animals, especially dogs and namely pit bulls. But I'll have to share those later.

Long story short. Have a knucklehead pit bull in my county? Better make sure it's secure in your yard. For its safety as well as the public.

Eat my Face

I use this term a lot at work. It's nice short graphic description of how a dog has reacted to you.
"He wanted to eat my face".
Seems like how my partner 460 and I can sum up this week.
Now let me start off with this little disclaimer:
I do not have an prejudice against Pit bulls, I have met and been around MANY great pit bulls and other bully breeds. It is unfortunately due to their HIGH population that in the Animal Control Field, we deal with many of the Not-So-Nice ones.
Now with that said, on with this week.
Sunday we get a call for a Police Assist. Three to Four aggressive Pit bulls in a grocery story parking lot.
I got there first. Cop 1 has his shotgun ready. The Cop 2 is on the other side of the Vacant store's back lot that is fenced in. There are indeed Three pit mixes in this enclosed area. No they didn't belong there. I actually knew where they did belong. We had dealt with them before, a few times. Cop 1 and 2 have not entered the fenced in area. So grabbing my catch pole I open up a panel in the rent-a-fence and enter with Cop 1 right behind me. My partner 460 is on her way to give me a hand, I can usually handle 2 aggressive dogs but three is very tricky if your on your own.
Not to mention the cops always seem ready to shoot pit bulls. So even if the dogs are knuckleheads, we are actually saving them from being shot on many occasions.
So Cop 1 tells me he is ready to shot if any of them charge. And he is ready. Shotgun is leveled and ready. I can tell by now that these three dogs are young. In the back of my mind I am wondering where the other two dogs that live with them are, the adult pits.
Growing tired of walking slowly behind Cop 1 and his shotgun with him repeatedly saying he is prepared to shot if we are charged, I finally started walking faster and passed him. Striding with purpose towards the closest dog.
I Said," Well, let's see if we get charged". Leaving Cop 1 standing back there with his shotgun.
Dog of coarse knew I called his bluff and went running to hid in the bushes with his buddies. 460 Showed up around that time and we have all 3 dogs impounded on our trucks within a few minutes. Cop 2 was cheering as we caught and pulled one by one snarling, rolling, pole chewing, gator rolling dogs out of the bushes. Actually it was only the first and second one that wanted to eat our faces. I caught the first one and took him to my truck, 460 caught the second one and took her to her truck and I caught the third. I actually was able to put a leash on him.
Cop 2 caught up with us at out trucks and offered praise and awe at our bravery to go into the bushes to "get so close" and catch the dogs. 460 and I just looked at each other and kind of laughed.
We are getting ready to leave the area, when we get a report of two more pit bulls running loose just a few blocks away from our location. Supposedly they caught and mauled a cat.
We knew it had to be the missing adult dogs.
We patrolled the area, but found nothing. I told 460 that we would get a call on these dogs. No doubt.
And several hours and three more aggressive dogs later. We did.
Red Dog and Daisy, as I later found out their names. Definitely wanted to eat our faces.
They were even working as a team to try to get 460 or myself into a spot where they could bully us down. But we were working the same game. Daisy nearly ripped 460's hand off when she was running passed 460 and 460 snagged her with her catch pole. Daisy ripped the pole out of her hand and ran for the fence. We had the hole blocked. Red Dog tried to go after 460 when she went for her catch pole still on Daisy's neck. I distracted him long enough for 460 to get her catch pole, and Daisy and haul her off to her truck.
Red Dog wasn't going without a fight. We did finally get him cornered and 460 got her loop over his head. He was a big strong dog. He started whipping around and fighting the pole until I got my loop over him. It took both of us to move him to the truck.
Wrestling dogs really does wipe you out.
The next day wasn't much better.
460 called me for assistance with 2 extremely aggressive pit bulls in a lady's backyard. When I got there These two, especially the female were over the top aggressive. They made Red Dog and Daisy seem like, well, puppy dogs. And the worst part was these two could scale 6 foot fences with ease. Like they had springs on their feet.
But they first wanted to eat our faces and I imagine gnaw on out skulls.
They did get tired of trying to eat our faces and *bo-ing* back into their yard. I peeked through the fence and saw teeth....But I was also able to see that there was another dog and a small puppy in the backyard. No shelter, no water. Just three and a half dogs.
We called in our Senior Officer and explained the situation. Our senior came to assess and assist with another officer.
It is a VERY rare thing for FOUR officers to be needed to impound dogs. But that was how bad these dogs were.
We got them though. Not without the Uber aggressive female going over 3 fences and attempting to go over a 4th that would have put her onto a public street. We got her before she was able to get all the way over the fence.
Whew. What a week.
But we still have our faces!

I don't WANT to take your Dog....

Dear Angry Dog Owner,

No.

I don't want to take your dog. My goal at the end of my shift each day is to go back to the shelter with an empty truck.

But due to you not being a responsible dog owner, I may have your dog on my truck. If your really lucky your dog is not in my tailgate box. This is the box of no return. The few that have tags or microchip that are up to date will at least get a phone call, and will know the fate of their pet.

Too many others will not.

But if your dog is in my truck in one of the dog boxes on the side, you have failed your pet somehow. You have allowed your dog to run loose, and most likely with no ID whatsoever. I know there are flukes when a dog accidentally gets out. But I also know that responsible dog owners put collars, tags and microchips to ID their dogs. Just in Case. They may never think their dog will get out, but it CAN happen even to the most responsible owner. These cases are easy. With dogs that have current licenses especially, I will made every effort to contact the owner, go to their house, call all phone numbers available.

I don't WANT to take your dog to the shelter. I will return dogs to owners who have ID, Microchip, phone numbers and tags. Most of the time I am going to just give a warning. Maybe the worst that will happen is I will cite for the dog running loose. I usually only do this if the dog had be difficult to catch, was running in and out of traffic. This is a public safety hazard, and a deadly hazard to the dog!

But if your an irresponsible pet owner. Your fences are in poor condition, or you just don't give a hang that your dog is running loose, is un-neutered/un-spayed, no tags, aggressive because it's unsocialized or territorial because it's un-neutered. It's going in my truck.

If your dog has bitten someone, has no rabies vaccinations and was running loose when it bit someone, it's going on my truck.

If you have failed to provide your dog with proper care, Food, Water, Shelter and Veterinary Care, your dog will go on my truck.

There are too many of these types of dogs.

I feel bad for the Dog when I have to take it to the shelter. Especially the old ones. It breaks my heart to find an old dog wandering the streets, obviously lost, but having no ID. I had a 13 year old Golden Reteriever who was microchipped. He couldn't even make it halfway across the yard to potty, but he had ID!

There is no excuse for dogs to NOT have some form of ID.

The OLDEST excuse I hear? "I took his collar off to give him a bath." And then you left him OUTSIDE??

Or the completely oblivious owners. Thier dog is running loose on the streets outside thier house chasing people, cars, bikes, dogs being walked on leashes. Dog is barking and raising a ruckus so loud that several neighbors call it in. I get there and dog is sure enough out running amuck and tries to charge me snarling like it's going to eat my face. I don't take that BS. I chase him back through the open gate or HUGE hole in gate or fence, or the open garage door. Or just onto the front porch. FINALLY the owner comes to check on thier dog and find me getting ready to catch pole thier dog. Did you not hear your dog for the last several hours barking, snarling, growling? Your getting a citation. Your lucky your dog isn't going on my truck. Next time it will.

Now don't assume that when I roll up in front of your house, I am there to take your dog.

I don't WANT to take your dog. Your irresponsibility forces me to take your dog.

                                                                                                     Sincerely,

                                                                                          The Dog Catcher



Another Happy Tail!!!

It's really awsome when calls end well.

I got the call that there was a little emacited grey and white dog that was reported to be in a field across from a supermarket and near a busy intersection. I patrolled the area and didn't find the dog. The field was huge, a good 5 acres with tall grass, drop-offs, trees and overgrown vegitation. Lots of places for a little scared dog to hide. Like I said, I couldn't find the dog. I called the person who had called it in. I let her know that I hadn't been able to find it. She told me that she had seen it running along the temporary fencing around the field and a friend of her's saw it again so she called it in.

I asked her to call back in if she sees it again.

Well by the next day, I got another call. And not from the original caller. So the dog was still in the area. I just wasn't seeing it. Later that evening I did some checking on CL. Well, after a couple days I got some feedback. Apparantly this dog had been seen in the field since around Christmas. The one house next to the field had been trying to catch the dog and leaving food out day and night. They also had a dog house set up. Then I was contacted by a Greyhound rescue. This filled in a little more of the puzzle. They had a foster that had been lost from in the area. They were thinking that it was the same dog. From the reports I had gotten, it very well could be.

I explained to the rescue contact that we didn't have a trap available. I had been trying to get our trap out, but it was in use at the Airport. Well, the rescue contact said she would try a few of her contacts to see if she could get a trap. She and I remained in contact to coordinate the trap placement. She had never set a trap before so I gave her pointers since I was probebly going to be off duty by the time she got a trap. she did get it set up by friday. And I checked the trap out. I still hadn't seen the dog.

The trap was set up so that it wouldn't close. This was done to lure the dog in so that it would not be afraid. This would take at least a couple of days. The neighbors in the house were very helpful by checking that there was food, and moving the bowls in further. this was helpful due the the rescue contact living pretty far away. Other officers also checked the trap daily until I returned to duty.

I went out the the trap on my first day back. The bowls where all the way inside the trap, and the food had been eaten. Time to se the trap and hope that it was our little guy.

I refilled the food and set the trap so it would spring when the dog went inside to eat. The rescue and neighbor had made sure that the trap had warm blankets and was covered to keep the dog safe from the outdoor weather.

Early the next morning I got a phone message from the neighbor. The dog was in the trap! He went in last night and she discovered him on her last trip out to the trap for the night. She had already called the rescue and they were already in motion to go pick up the trap and dog.

I was then contacted by the rescue contact. She had been called late last night and had been up since 6am to get the trap and dog. She had just finished picking him and the trap up. It was thier missing foster, a whippet who had gotten away from his foster home.

The rescue contact told me that he was in remarkable good condition, and he was on his way to her house to get checked out and she was going to personally foster this little guy. After all he had been through, she wanted to make sure nothing else happened to him.

While I didn't actually catch this dog. I still consider it one of my sucesses. And thank you to all that had been involved and cared.

You know, I never did get to see the dog.

I Am Your Animal Control Officer

I Am Your Animal Control Officer (by Kelli Bramlett, ACO)((not me btw))
(This was a handout given at one of our mandatory Compassion Fatigue Workshops, it says a LOT about who we are and how we feel.)

I am your animal control officer. I am not the dreaded "dog catcher" or "murderer" you call me. I am not the one who allows your pet to roam the streets, to contract diseases from either free-roaming animals, to be hit by passing motorists or poisoned by rotting garbage.
I am the one who must look into those sick, pain-glazed eyes, try to remove the animal without causing it further pain and then humanely "put it to sleep" to put an end to its suffering.
I am not the one who allows your pets to breed, then dumps the unwanted puppies and kittens on roadsides and in shelters. I am the one who must find the tiny animals before they die of starvation, exposure, or disease and as an act of mercy exterminate them. It HURTS ME to be forced to kill hundreds of thousands of animals each year, but because of your irresponsibility. I have no choice.
I am not the one who abandons unwanted animals on farm roads, telling myself some friendly farmer will take them in and give them a good home. But I am the one who must pick up the frightened animal as it waits in vain for its beloved master, wondering why it has been abandoned. I am the one who must help that friendly farmer trap, tranquilize or kill that animal because it has begun to roam in packs with other abandoned hungry animals, killing livestock, fowl and game.
I am not the one who breeds and fights dogs in the name of “sport”. But I am the one who fights the breeders and participants and must pick up the dead and dying animals left behind.
I am not the one who keeps a pet confined in an area too small, without food, water, shelter or exercise. But I must deal with the irresponsible owner who does.
I am not the one who refuses to spend time and money to keep up regular inoculations that all pets require. But I am the one who must pick up the sick animal that is dying of a preventable disease.
So remember, the next time your child is bitten by a strange dog, your trash is dumped and scattered, your pet is lost, stolen, poisoned or hit by a car, it is the animals control officer you call...not the “dog catcher.”
The next time your pet is picked up, or you are cited for neglecting or abusing it, remember, I am only trying to get you to fulfill your responsibility to your pet, your neighbor and yourself.
Don’t scorn me. Respect me, for I am the product of your irresponsibility.
I love animals, and I care.

Monster...A Happy Ending

My first run in with Monster, as I later found out was his name, was back on 12/15/08.

Got a call for an aggressive German Shepherd that wouldn't leave someones property. So I get there and Monster is in this backyard.

He is a HUGE dog, ya, I'd name him Monster too!!

When I try to catch him he doesn't even growl, he just charges me. He blows right passed me before I can get a catch pole loop around him. So I spend the next 15 minutes chasing him around, in and out of the backyard and front yard since there is no fence on one side. I finally have had enough and call for another officer to come assist me. She'd take about 20 minutes to get there. So in this 20 minutes I again try to catch him.

I had him cornered again and as he was charging me, once again, I got the catch pole loop around his neck!

But he is going so fast and is so huge that he blows passed me, yanking the catchpole, spinning me and him around and he takes off. I take off after him as now he is headed out into the neighborhood. By the time I run back to my truck and get turned around to catch him he is around the corner and vanishes. I start cruising the neighborhood and surrounding streets. He has vanished.

The other officer arrived and we both are searching.

Nothing.

Finally we call it.

Unable to locate.

The other officer and I both check craigslist as she mentioned seeing and ad for a lost Shepherd. She was going to follow up and give the poster a call. She did and left a message.

Fast forward 3 weeks later. 1/6/08.

I respond to a call of a Dog reported to be abandoned at a vacant house. Another officer had posted a Pre-seizure for abandonment and now it was time to pick the dog up.

So I go into the backyard.

Monster is there.

Of coarse this property is on 2 acres and not fenced in so the chase is on.

Didn't last long.

This dog has a knack of disappearing.

I had also gotten a call earlier about an aggressive dog that just happened to be on the other side of the street. Monster.

So I have gone out to this property every day this week to leave food to try to keep him around. No traps available and no Tranq available. I have to remind myself that I love working for the county.

Today, Supervisor tells me that he can meet me out there and tranq the dog. I go out early to set food out and make sure the Monster is still there.

Yep. He barks at me and takes off into the field. But he'll be back.

I leave to go do another call.

As I am driving there a lost dog poster catches my eye. "His Name is Monster", and there are pictures. It's him!

So I call the number and the owner called me back. She would meet me at the property and confirm if it is her dog. Of coarse when we get there Monster is no where in sight. Owner starts calling and calling. We are there for a good 20 minutes when she catches a glimpse of a tail in the orchard next to the property. She keeps calling and and calling. And she goes down the street. I hang back and can hear that she has found him. It's him. She is screaming and cry she is so happy and I can see him jumping on her he is so excited to see his mommy. I actually choked up a little when I heard her. I watched as Monster jumped around and loved on her. A totally different dog that I had known. He jumped into the back of her vehicle, happy as can be.

Monster had been missing since 11/20/08, nearly 2 months! And he was at least 10 miles away from where he had been lost from. Amazingly, he was in pretty good shape. So he is home and safe tonight and his owner and his sister are very glad he is back. I love happy endings.

Happy Stinking New Year

Whew....Three guys are not enjoying their New Year. Not at their house at least.

Call came in as a Skunk in the Bathroom. Ok so my first thought was...did I hear that right? A Skunk in a bathroom? Gotta be a mistake. Well I get there and am greeted by 3 guys standing on the street outside their little, and I do mean little house. The front door is wide open. And it's cold and overcast. As soon as I get out of the truck I can smell that unmistakable smell of skunk. Gee must be at the right house. One of the guys refuses to go near the house. Every time the aroma would waif his way he started gagging and coughing. So one of the other ones shows me into the house. And directs me to where the bathroom is. I cautiously poke my head into the bathroom and sure enough, there is the black and white furry beast behind the toilet. The guys had taken the dispatchers advice of placing a trail of food along the floor to lead skunk outside. Ya...that will work.

I went back out to my truck to get my equipment. A catch pole, plastic garbage bag and cage.

As I was getting my stuff I asked mr. gaggy "so how did this happen?" He choked out the story. The buddies were sitting in the living room when Mr.Gaggy's black lab went running into the back of the house where the kitchen and bathroom are, barking like crazy. Then they heard her yelping and she came running back out foaming and bleeding from the nose. That was when they smelled that wonderful aroma. Apparently Mr.Skunk found his way into the house via the doggie door. This is not uncommon by the way. And Poor labby got a full blast of spray in the schnoz. Scared skunk ran in to the bathroom and that was were he stayed until I was called.

So here I was getting my equipment. I warned the guys that the smell was going to get worse not better, as Skunk wasn't going to leave peacefully. Meaning that there is going to be spraying. Nope sorry no way to avoid it.

I would do my best to keep it contained to one room, the bathroom. but the house was still going to smell.

Sorry guys.

I re-enter the house and again assess the situation. Skunk has himself wedged behind the toilet. all I can see is his big fluffy tail. And that is NEVER a good thing to only see. Knowing that I am not going to get a catch pole around him without his stink bomb going off every which way, I go back out to my truck and grab my snake tongs. I use the snake tongs to grab him by the tail.

*SQUIRT*

He blasts the wall and floor next to the toilet. I manage to orient his pungent pink "eye" away from me and drag him a little further out. I have the cage ready, in the open plastic garbage bag. I just need to somehow manage to get him inside without painting me and the entire bathroom with dayglow yellow stinking spray. Using the catchpole to pin him to the floor, and change my position of the snake tongs. Using both the catchpole and the snake tongs like giant chop sticks, I maneuver him around the floor and lift and drop him into the cage in the back. As I do this he manages to get one more

*SQUIRT* on the wall next to the shower, and angrily sprays the inside of the cage and bag while I use the tongs to close the bag up. TA DA!!!! bagged a Big one! I walk out of the house with my pole and tongs in one hand and the bagged cage in the other. the guys were cheering. And gagging. But happy that the skunk was gone. The dog still looked miserable. The neighbors were cheering too, as this had apparently drawn a small crowd brave enough to bare the smell.

I told the guys to open the house up and get some fans going. I felt bad for them so I called my always helpful hubby, who looked up the Formula for skunk smell removal. I gave the formula to them and advised that they might want to pitch a tent outside for tonight. They planned on sleeping elsewhere for the at least tonight. Mr.Gaggy was also going to take his dog to the vet to make sure she was ok and see if they could do something about her smell.At least they will always have a wild story to tell about New Years 2009. And so will I.

Tidbit: If you hold a skunks tail down it can't spray. But HOW do you get that close in the first place, and WHY would you want to?

FORMULA:

1 quart of WHITE Vinegar

1/4 cup of Baking Soda

1 tablespoon of Dish Shop (Dawn is recommended)

no more or less as it changes the properties.

There are many other recipes, but this one is suppose to be the best.

Welcome

Welcome to my Blog. I am an Animal Control Officer, or to shorten ACO. Hopefully readers will be entertained and a little bit educated about being an ACO.

Well Enough with this...let's get on with the stories!!!