Fourth of July, Are Your Pets Safe?

I know it still June, but have you seen the fireworks stands already propped up in just about every parking lot and empty corner? Are you aware that Fireworks are going on sale next week? Fire works are sold before the Fourth even gets here. It's time to think about your pets.

Do they have id on them? Tags? Microchip with CURRENT contact information? Even as simple as using a permanent marker and writing your phone number on the collar.

No one thinks that it will happen to them. "Oh my dog will be fine." Tell that to the hundreds or thousands of animals that end up in the shelters the week prior to and the week after the holiday. Or how about animals who will be running in fear of the strange scary noises, smells and sights who are hit by cars? It happens EVERY year. This year can we make a difference?

Make sure your pets have ID. Does the ID have an alternate contact in case your out of town? You can go to Wal-mart and for a couple bucks get a tag to put at least a name and phone number on. It's that simple. Or simpler still for those who use the excuse, "oh I don't like hearing those tags jingle all the time". How about using a simple permanent marker and writing a phone number on the collar.

Does your pet already have a tag or a microchip? IS the information current? Make sure to always keep phone numbers current. What good is the microchip is you don't have the information in there?

Are you going to be out of town and leaving pets behind? Make sure whoever is caring for your pets has emergency numbers, vet and animal shelter, should something happen and the pet goes missing. Pet care takers tend to not think of these things. Remember too than many vet hospitals will be closed for the holiday, so be sure to include your local emergency vet. Ask your regular vet who they refer their clients to.

If your home watch your pets for behavior changes, shaking, worried looks, startling at sudden noises. These could be signs that your pet is hearing the fireworks that inevitably are set off before the holiday itself. Take this as a sign that your pet will not do well with the bombardment on the actual holiday. You still have time to talk to your vet about ways to keep your pets calm. Call them for advice.

The best and safest place for scared pets is inside where the sounds and smells aren't as loud. They can still hear them, but being inside provides a safer place. With very reactive pets, you may want to place them in a central room in the house where noise from outside is buffered the most and play a radio or TV with a talk show or calm music. I don't recommend and action movie or heavy metal music, kind of defeats the purpose of creating a calming atmosphere.

If the house is not an option, do the same thing in the garage. If you cannot keep them in the garage, check your fences and gates so that a scared dog cannot easily get out.

Now what if you have done all this and your pet still goes missing? Make fliers to put up around your area, give to local vets and to bring in to the shelters. Have a clear current photo of your pet to put on fliers or post ad on places such as Craigslist. Call or look up on line the hours of operation for ALL the shelters in your area. Some have reduced hours, some are closed on certain days of the week. Call your vet to notify them of your lost pet.

If your pet is lost, has a license, has ID, has a current microchip and is picked up by animal control. We will try our best to return your pet to you as quickly as possible.

Summer time and Fourth of July should be fun for all and that includes your pets. Make sure your pets have current ID and take precautions to safeguard fearful pets.

Sneaky Dog

So I'm rolling between calls yesterday in the North part of the county. This area is near a big county park where it changes from suburbs to country in about 10 seconds. It's a busy road I'm on and there is lots of traffic. I see just ahead of me something that didn't look right. A big ol' Boxer is standing at the edge of the Park entrance. A quick scan of the area revealed that he was definitely alone. No owner? So I quickly pulled over and got out. His attention was drawn to me and I called to him. He gave me a "hoof" sound, turned and started trotting off. Well that was rude! Cars were still zipping by at 50 in a 35 zone. I had to make sure this guy didn't try to cross. I had my warning lights going on top and the back of my truck, but no one pays attention to those. They still fly by going 50.

I managed to turn around and cut Boxer off before he headed into traffic. He didn't like that I turned around and was thwarting his efforts to turn his day really bad. I yelled at him to "GO HOME!" He apparently knew what I said and he took off like a pudgy brown rocket. I turned my beast of a truck around again and followed him. He ran down the first residential street then cut a sharp turn onto the next residential street. By the time I was able to turn I thought I had lost him on the second residential street. I slowly drove down and there he was chillin' on the front porch of a house looking quite comfortable. I got out of my truck. Maybe he has just gotten through a gate that wasn't securely latched. But as soon as I got halfway to him he bolted back the way we had just come.

Dang it dog!!

I ran back to my truck and the chase was once again on. I followed him all the way back to the park entrance again, only this time he went into the park and disappeared down into the creek area. I looked but couldn't find him. Sneaky dog! He appeared to know his way and ditched me.

Well, I would come back later and see if I could find him. I had several other calls that I needed to get to. Hopefully I wouldn't be scraping his carcass off the roadway or rushing him to the emergency vet later.

I worked my other calls and notified my dispatcher that I was going to look for that boxer. I drove by the area again, but didn't see him. So I went to the house that he had been chillin' at.

As I pulled up there was a different boxer laying in the front yard with it's owner right there. I got out and went to speak to the owner. I heard a "hoof" from the front screen door and guess who it was? Yep, Sneaky dog.

I told the owner what had happened several hours ago. The owner was stunned and said there was no way that it was his dog. His dogs have been home in the house with him all day. I asked if he was sure. The dog inside the screen looked just like the dog I had chased. No. They have been in the house and well, except for his doctor's appointment this morning, he's been home all day with them. I asked him what time he was at this appointment as I glanced at the times on my log. Owner's appointment was 8:30 this morning and he got home about 10:30. I was chasing the dog at about 10:00. No. Owner insisted that his dogs were in the house when he left and they were both in the house when he got back. You have a sneaky dog Mister.

Then the owner realized what might have happened. He has a doggie door into the garage. Maybe the garage door had been left open and the dog found a way out of the yard? Sneaky dog, who's name is Spike by the way, was glaring at me while I was talking to his owner. Boy way I ruining any future escape adventures.

So Spike, aka Sneaky dog, left the house, via doggie door, went through a accidentally left open garage door, somehow got out of his backyard, got chased around by me, went to the creek, THEN came back home and was back in his house when his owner got home. Sneaky SMART dog!

Owner was very grateful that I had come by to tell him this. He would have never know and who knows what would have happened to Spike. Spike didn't look too happy about my visit. Owner is going to check the yard and make sure Spike's escape route is no longer usable.

Sneaky dog, you have been Busted!

End of the Line

Well Folks this might be the end of the line for me.
Due to County Budget cuts I have been issued my notification of lay off effective July 3rd. I am told that if the County Board of Supervisors passes the current proposal Badge Number 461 will no longer be.
I have been trying to be positive. It is hard with such an uncertain future.
I worry about how my family and I are going manage.
I worry about starting over in a new job, IF I can even find one in this economy.
I worry about the co-workers I leave behind, who's workload is going to be even more with not only myself but 6 others being layed off in animal control.
I worry about the animals in the shelter.
I worry about the animals in the field.
I worry about the people in the field.

I have always tried to keep this blog upbeat and show the funny quirky side of being an ACO. Right now it's very difficult.
I don't know what I am going to do at this point. As my regular readers have gathered I live Animal Control. My off button is rarely off. I eat sleep live Animal Control. It's like my hands are being cut off. I'm already feeling a little bit lost.

Please say a little prayer for us, me and my fellow layoff-ees, that the Board of Supervisors will understand that our services ARE needed and that losing us is not acceptable. It's not just for us and our families, it's for the animals that we devote our lives to saving and caring for.

Thank you,
461

Stand-By Shift: How Cows and Cars Don't Mix

Having stand-by kinda sucks. But I sign up for it anyway for the little extra money. What is stand-by? Well it is the shift between Swing and Day. Instead of having a Graveyard shift or a 3rd Watch, we have Standby. From 11pm to 7am we are "on-call", We can go home, go to bed but we have to have out phones on or close by so the county dispatchers can get a hold of us. We all usually take a county dog truck home, so it's just a matter of getting up, getting dressed and rolling out.

Most of the time it's quiet. You sleep through the night. But then there are those nights, or should I say, early mornings that you get jarred out of your sound sleep by the phone ringing.

I have not been having those mostly quiet nights the last 3 times I had standby.

I got a call initially for a injured deer at around 11:30pm, half hour after standby started. So I rolled out. It was a good distance away, on the north-east side of the county. I live on the North-west side. It would take me at least 45 minutes to get there.

Well, I was about halfway there when I got another call. Cow versus Car. Cow is still alive. I confirmed that Highway patrol was still on scene, usually they aren't. They were according to the dispatcher. So the deer was going to have to wait. Livestock is larger, and in my experience, the injured deer are usually gone by the time we get there anyway. So I switched directions heading South-east now.

Wow, they weren't kidding.

The cow was still alive, laying directly behind the Mercedes Benz that hit it. It was hard to say which was worse, the cow or the car. The cow was a HUGE cow. Big beef cow. She had obviously rolled over the hood, over the cab, and over the trunk. And I'm not sure how the interior of the car got sprayed inside with manure. But I guarantee that the driver and anyone else in the car was taken to the hospital covered in the foul smelling stuff.

The cow was pretty bad. I was surprised she survived the hit. Now I had to try to get in contact with the owners or get supervisor authorization to humanely dispatch the cow. And this needed to be done fast. Fire department, CHP and the Tow truck were all on scene. One of the CHP officers was a little freaked out, she was a city girl and seeing the cow thrashing and making noises was bit much for her. I tried calling my supervisor. No Answer. I tried calling my other supervisor. No answer. I tried locating the owner on our livestock log. No such luck. Tried to call the supervisor again. No Answer. Tried other supervisor. Finally! Well he wants me to try to locate the owner. Ok did that, no luck. Well, then we need to call a vet and have them come euthanize the cow. I tried to explain that the cow needed to be put down immediately. I had a shot slug and could do it. I don't think this supervisor had confidence that I could do it.

It was about then that one of the firefighters said he might know someone who knows the cow owner. Alright, wake them up! I don't care that it's now 2AM and it's also one of the coldest nights we have had this winter. I told the supervisor we might have an owner and I would call him back if we didn't.

So the Fire Battalion Chief drove the firefighter to the relatives house. Woke him up and got the cow owners phone number. He came back and I called the owner. The cow owner and his wife showed up with a flatbed truck. The owner had a revolver and put the cow down. Then, with the help of the tow truck driver, they loaded the cow up. Meanwhile I got the owner's info from the owners wife. We walked the fence line a little to see how the cow had gotten out. We found an area that I pointed out to one of the CHP officers where the fence was down. It appears that earlier in the evening, on this remove road, someone drove off the road and through the fence into the cow pasture. They had obviously drove back out, destroying a section of the fence in the process and left the scene. This was how the cow got out and onto the road, then met the Mercedes by accident. The Officer said he hadn't even noticed that before and agreed that that was what obviously happened. The cow was loaded by now and the owner was going to take it away after fixing the fence. He had 70 plus more cows and calves out there in the dark and didn't want to loose anymore. As it was they were going to have to search for this cow's calf and take it back to their house.

After leaving there I did head back to where the deer was suppose to be. I was wide awake after all. And guess what. No deer.

On my next Standby shift I got a call at 4:30 AM. This was after I had just gotten to sleep after doing a earlier call that had been left over from Swing shift. So couple of hours of sleep, feels like I JUST fell asleep. Phone rings. Cows versus car. Cows? As in more than one? Yep. Both still alive, CHP on scene, car they hit was a Volkswagen Jetta, little car. Oh boy.

So I roll on this one. This is going to be a long ass drive. Again I am coming from home, which is only a few miles from the north county border. This call is at the county line at the south county border. It's going to be at least an hour and a half, and the is mostly freeway too!

So I am almost there, like 5 minutes away, when I see a tow truck headed the opposite direction. As it passes I see a completely smashed Volkswagen jetta, or at least that what what I was guessing. Then I get passed by CHP. They whip around and I slow down. Didn't anyone call? The cows died and are on the side of the road. Nope.No one called. Oh well, I was almost there at least I could try to locate the owner.

After finding the cows, two weanling size calves actually, I looked for brands. Nothing. So I went to the closest neighbor and spoke to the foreman of the grape vineyard. He told me that one of his workers saw the accident and told him about it. He had already called the owners and they were on their way. I would wait for them and get their information and make sure they knew to remove the bodies, or call rendering.

The owners arrived in their pick up. They were going to check the fences and then load up the bodies for disposal. I got their information to add to our livestock log.

By this time, the sun was up and it was about 7:30AM. I could either go into work early, or I could drive home and turn right around and drive to work. I wasn't going to get anymore sleep than the couple of hours I had. So I went to work. That was a fun day. I wish I could remember it, but I was sleep deprived and working on Auto pilot.

My last standby was again earlier morning, about 2am. Only about an hour drive. Even the county dispatcher had to laugh and comment how I ALWAYS get the cow versus car calls. Ha Ha. Even though it was only and hour away the dispatcher kept getting calls from CHP asking for an ETA. Um hello? WE don't have blue and red flashy lights and sirens. We don't have teleporters to get there any faster. The dispatcher was sympathetic. The about halfway there I get a call that the officers on scene were going to go ahead and shoot the cow and move it off the road. Ok. I thought about turning around, but I was on the freeway heading south, Again, and couldn't make and easy turn around. So I decided I would head out there and check for brands or an owner. Got lucky before.

I am almost there when I get another "update" the cow got up and mooooved. Sorry. Couldn't help the pun. Um I thought CHP was going to shot the cow? Nope. Thier Sargent told them to wait until I got there. Oh goodie. Good thing I was still on my way! And it mooooved? Ya I know I did it again.

Couldn't miss the location. They had the road blocked off completely. You would have thought it was a ten car pile up with the amount of cops on scene. Both CHP and SSD. For a cow. I get let through the road block and head to the center of it.

The cow is alive and in a sitting position on the side of the road. Just a note, cows don't usually sit. She obviously got hit in the head and body. One of her horns had been knocked off and was laying about 20 ft down the road. Her jaw was very obviously broken and she had bleeding from her side. She looked like she was going to topple over right there. The cops were worried that she was going to get back in the roadway. There was no car on scene. CHP said that the cow had been hot by 3 cars, but they reportedly all drove away.

I walked around her looking for any brands. None. I checked the livestock log. The only building in the area is a church and school. I have no idea who the cow belongs to.

Suddenly she starts lurching up from her sitting position and stands. I grabbed a rope but before I could get it on her she lurched towards a gate that went into the field. Several SSD and CHP quickly tried to get the gate open. Their main goal was to get the cow secure and the roadway open again. The cow had other ideas.

Instead of heading for the gate she suddenly turned and headed for the open field next to the gate. One CHP and I went after her. I got the rope around her head, but she didn't get more than 20 feet before she dropped down. She was done. So was I. I went to my truck and got my shotgun. The CHP officer was holding the rope but she wasn't going to get up again, Her head was down and she was breathing raspy breaths. I called my supervisor. I was willing him to pick up the phone. I heard a sleepy "hello". I quickly told him what was going on, and that I just needed him to authorize me to shot the cow. He asked about calling out a vet. I said that wasn't an option. So he said to go ahead. I hung up, loaded my shotgun and in a second it was done.

It was a perfect textbook shot to the forehead. The CHP officer was impressed.

It's kinda weird for me that I often get the same reaction. As if a woman being a good confident shooter is a weird thing. But then I guess I'm weird. We left the cow there after making sure she was dead. Tomorrow we would figure out who owns the cattle. When we got back to the other cops they were impressed that it only took one shot. Good thing it did, as I only had one slug to do it with. So The cops cleared out and I cleared the scene and headed back home to get a couple more hours of sleep.

And that is how my standbys have been going lately. How come I never get Standby calls that are close to home?

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

This song popped into my head today. I had shelter duty today, but despite being in the shelter I had to go out to do a special task. This is not unusual really, even though the task was unusual.

It all started about a week ago.

I got a bite report. We get several bit reports daily. As I was reading the note I cringed. Apparently the dog was euthanized at the vet but before it was euthanized, the dog managed to bite the vet tech. The dog was euthanized and then the remains were given back to the owner by the vet hospital for the owner to bury.

This is a NO-NO!

There are strict regulations that have to be followed regarding animals that bite. Live animals must be quarantined for 10 days and dead animals are to be submitted for Rabies testing. But no, the dog was sent home, to be buried.

So I'm looking at this thinking, really? Dog had been buried two days. Then I thought, since the notes indicated that the dog had been current on rabies vaccinations, perhaps there was nothing that we would be able to do. After all would the specimen even be viable after being buried for 2 days? I had to check. So I called our Supervisor that handles most of the Rabies specimens collections. He said he was going to have to check with the County Health Veterinarian, who does the rabies testing.

Well he got back to me and told me that we would have to "collect" the rabies specimen. I was instructed to call the owner of the dog and advise them that we would need the dog's remains.

I was so hoping to avoid this. I felt really bad, here their dog had to be euthanized, it bit the tech and now we wanted the body after they buried it. Crappy. Just crappy.

Well I called the owners. They were not happy. Can you really blame them? The owner told me that their dog was 15 years old, and she was dying. They took her to the emergency vet because she was in pain and suffering and their usual vet was not open. They had always kept up on the dogs vaccinations, and everything the dog ever needed. They didn't understand why the vet who euthanized the dog hadn't told them about this. And they were also upset about how the vet hospital had handled the circumstances of the bit and euthanasia. Regardless I had to ask them about digging the dog up. The owner was upset that this had to be done. He said he needed to talk to his wife and would call me back. He wasn't upset with me, just the situation he felt he was being put in. I told him that I understood and that I had tried to get around it, but could not. He asked to call me back.

A short time later I got a call back from his wife. She was also very upset and told me so. She was calm but I could tell that this was very emotional for her. She said that they had no intention of digging their dog up, and that if we had to have the dog we would need to come do it. Or better yet since it was the vet who dropped the ball on this, they should be the ones to do it. I had to agree with her there, but this was not going to happen. I gave her the supervisor's number when she questioned if this really had to be done. I told her to call him and ask him if this was really necessary. I really wanted to help these people out and NOT dig up the dog.

Well, I got a call from the supervisor. He told me I was going to have to go dig up the dog. He spoke to the owners and let them know that it was necessary, but we would dig the dog up, and return the dog when it was all done.

Yep, that's right, ACO turns grave digger.

So I called and spoke with the owners again. I was apologetic and made arrangements to come right away. They were going to leave once I got there. They didn't want to be there when I removed the dog. But they wanted to be able to show me were she was.

I got there and met the husband. He was a nice older gentleman. He showed me where the grave was, on the back wooded section of their property. He moved the stones he had placed on the grave and warned me that they had dug a pretty deep hole. I told him that I would leave it open for the re-burial. He thanked me and left me to my task.

He wasn't kidding when he said it was deep. I finally found the dog after 45 minutes of digging about 3 1/2 feet down. I could help but think about those old B-movies that depicted some crazy person digging up graves. But a crazy maniacal laugh would probably have been inappropriate at this time. Thank Dog she wasn't a big dog, only about 40 lbs. They had her wrapped in a couple blankets. I put her in the garden cart the owner had provided me. It wasn't too bad. The worse part was the digging and the 2nd worse part was hauling the cart back up the hill, through the yard, out the gate and to my truck.

So that part was done.

I won't go into details, oh the heck with it, I will. You see Rabies Testing is done on the brain. And since the County Health lab can't have a bunch of bodies of dead animals waiting for testing, only the head is submitted. Get my point? Well since we promised to return the dog to the owners after testing, and they didn't want details, well we had to wait until after the testing was done, so the WHOLE dog could be re-buried.

I went and picked the specimen up from the county lab. Then re-united the specimen, with the rest of the dog. Too much detail? Sorry, welcome to my glamours world!

Yesterday I got a hold of the owners. They would leave the gate open for me, but they would be at work.

So today, after cleaning kennels all morning, I loaded up the dog and drove her back to the owners house. When I was leaving the shelter, the old AC/DC song "Dirty Deeds" was rumbling around in my head. Don't know why. Once at the owners house I took the little garden cart again, loaded the dog into it (the dog is in a big black plastic bag so I don't freak out the neighbors) and dragged it back through the gate, through the yard, down the hill and through the wooded area to it's final resting place.

It's been a little more than a week and a few rain storms since I was there last. So I had to do a little MORE digging to get the dirt knocked in by the weather and time. I was also trying not to fall in the hole. Once I had a sufficient hole, I placed the dog back in it. Dirt is a lot heavier when it has been sitting for awhile in a pile, kinda like cement. It took me 45 minutes again to re-bury the dog. But I think I did a decent job. I even covered it with the bark ground cover the owner had on the original grave and placed the stones back on top. It, for the most part, looked the way it had been. I dragged the little cart back through the woods, up the hill, through the yard and placed it back where I found it. I closed and secured the gate and got back in the truck.

Done. Dirty Deeds.

Where'd You Go?

Where oh were did that ACO go? Oh where oh where can she beee?

Well, it's been a busy beginning of the year, both personally and professionally. I hope to return soon with more interesting topics. I am also contemplating the future of this blog.

In the mean time I have to share something that happened to a co-worker, 460. Hopefully I will get the details right.

I have mentioned 460 in several of my stories.

Well, 460 called me up the other day, she HAD to tell me what had happened to her. She had a call for a loose dog, nothing bad, not aggressive, just running loose. I can't remember if she had to catch it or if it was confined for pick up when she got there. Anyway, she goes and get this dog. She's walking back to her truck to impound the dog when she hears, "Meow". She stops and looks around and the dog is looking around too. She didn't see anything so she starts heading for the truck again. "ME-OW!"

There it was again. This time the dog looked up in a tree, so 460 also looked.

Sure enough there was the source of the "Meow". A cat up a tree. 460 starts talking to the cat, but remembers she still has the dog. She takes the dog to the truck and puts it in, then she grabs her catch pole and returns to the tree. She talks to the cat as it teeters on a thin branch, it talks back to her, seemingly frantically meowing at her. 460 said that the cat wasn't up too far, but the cat just seemed frantic to get out. So she used her catch pole to help lower the cat back down to the ground. She released the loop and the cat sat there for a moment. "Go on kitty, you safe now." The cat looked at 460 then bolted back up the tree.

Seriously!! And at the beginning of her telling me about this I had JOKED that the cat ran back up the tree.

Stupid cat.

Or are they? 460 and I contemplated this. Maybe this was a ruse, some kind of cat humor. The cat's buddies are hiding in the bushes laughing their little cat laughs and waiting for the next gullible hairless two-legger to wander by.

Think about that next time you look at your cat.

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.)