To Feed A Dog: Part Two

What were we supposed to do with all these dogs?  Should we just take the sick one?  And where would we take it?  The shelter was closed.  And even if the shelter was open, what would we say?  That we found the dog?  But then what would happen if a missing dog report turned up?  How do we explain that?

It seemed like the best thing to do was to report the entire situation to the animal control officer.  Me? I’m afraid of the ACO.  Once, I shared a situation on a social media site.  It was a situation of some puppies that had been abused, according to the report I saw.  The ACO came to my workplace and reprimanded me for sharing.  She said that no one knew anything about that situation, and where had I gotten my information?  She said that someone had contacted her department about my post – my shared post – and that it was making her look bad, and that I didn’t know how hard she had worked and that I had destroyed all her hard work.

So Sugar is going to have to make the call.

The following day was Monday, his day off.  He made the call to the ACO, who told him that she was going to be in court all day and could not investigate his claim until the following day.

Enter more weirdness.

She called him the following day to say that the property owners were friends of hers, and that she had called them to let them know she had a complaint about their property being abandoned, including the animals.  The property owners became agitated, and stated that the complaint was a lie, that they were at the property every day, and that they had complained to the ACO’s superiors, because clearly they were being targeted and harassed.  So by the time the ACO actually went to inspect the property, there were food and water dishes for each dog, and she could not determine who actually had cared for the dogs.  She told Sugar that he should have taken photos, and for him not to trespass again.

So I suppose we should have used a zoom lens in order not to trespass.

When Sugar asked the ACO what he should do when he sees a case where a dog has not been cared for in days, she said that he did the right thing, but not to trespass again.

The next day when he went back out on his route, the dogs were gone.

*****

About a month later, he had another issue with another dog on his route.  This particular dog was at the property NEXT DOOR to the one that had the four dogs.

This dog was also tied, and also had a shelter, although it was a dog house turned away from where the dog could actually get into it.  This dog had bowls lying round about, but none every appeared to have food or water in them.  There was a five-gallon bucket by the dog house, too far away for the dog to reach, and the problem with a deep bucket is that, if there is only a little water in the bottom, the dog cannot reach the water easily, and usually overturns the bucket.

The plan was the same.  We will go on a Sunday morning, and it will be a quick in-and-out.  Sugar watched the trailer to see if there were signs of life.  There were none, there were no cars there ever, and the mail was piling up in the mailbox.

What could possibly go wrong?

Sugar became bold and inattentive to the time.  He was busy concentrating on the dog.  He had found two sawed-off buckets lying in the ditch that he used for food and water bowls, and he scooted the house around so the dog could get into it.  He checked the outside faucet for water, which worked, and he filled the water bowl.  He became even bolder and pounded on the front door, then went back over to where the dog was.

The clock was ticking, and I told him his 5 minutes was up.  I got back in the van on the passenger side, and started twitching.  He opened the driver’s door, and started cleaning his shoes, because of course there was poop all over the place from the dog.  That’s when I looked up, and saw the door of the trailer swinging inward…