No one wins.
Jul. 19th, 2006 05:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysobelleI got a call a little while ago. A message on my voicemail from the man who owned Rets.
It went something like this, "Hi...this is the owner of the dead Labrador. I...just tell your friend...the next time she wants to be kind to an animal, she should go to the SPCA and pick out a dog there. That dog slept beside me for ten years, and now...yeah. That's all."
He sounded like he was close to tears. I'll assume he called the numbers I gave him, and found Rets had indeed been put down. I won't call him back, and I won't be passing his message along to Renee. But if I WERE going to call him, here's what I'd say:
You told me he knew how to open your gate. You told me he loved to wander, and usually went straight to our apartment complex. Why didn't you get a better gate? And why the fuck didn't you have fucking tags on him? Or if you ever get a dog again-- and I hope you don't-- you might want to consider getting the dog chipped. Thirty fucking dollars-- if that-- and any vet or shelter can get him back to you.
You told me he killed at least eight cats that you know of. Incidentally, and now that it's at least nine, how do you know the others were all strays like you said? Your dog roams-- you think other people might not have been waiting for their cats to come home? Someone else isn't sitting by an empty food bowl? Point is, he's not 100% warm and cuddly. You should have taken better precautions.
Your dog had a pronounced limp. How were we to know, dirty and thirsty and hungry and covered in ticks as he was, that he hadn't been hit by a car somewhere and needed help? How were we to make the call that he was somehow safer on the street? Oh, and one word: Frontline. You keep him outside in the summer without any kind of tick protection? Shame on you.
I have your phone number. All I have to do is give it to Renee or the police, and you're going to be incredibly lucky if you don't get sued. She tried to help your dog, and wound up in the hospital, and with a dead cat. You might want to think about that before you call me again.
If you loved him so much, why did you go on vacation knowing he'd disappeared? If you'd started calling around the day he'd run away, he'd be with you right now.
You didn't want to know if he was dead, so you had a friend call me. You didn't want to speak to me directly, so you left me a voicemail. You knew your dog could get out and you did nothing about it. I'm sensing a trend, here.
Another thing? Male dog. Opens gates. Hates cats. NOT FIXED. Can you honestly say you didn't see this coming? A female in season anywhere near you, and OF COURSE he's going to take off. A tabby wandering down the road? Off he goes.
I don't like being the instrument of inevitability, but that's how it turned out. This was tragic. It could have been avoided, but it wasn't. I did everything I could. I even tried to track him down to see if a Lab rescue could come get him. This was a train wreck caused by one person. And that person was not me. That person was not Renee.
And Rets and Nessie paid for it.
It went something like this, "Hi...this is the owner of the dead Labrador. I...just tell your friend...the next time she wants to be kind to an animal, she should go to the SPCA and pick out a dog there. That dog slept beside me for ten years, and now...yeah. That's all."
He sounded like he was close to tears. I'll assume he called the numbers I gave him, and found Rets had indeed been put down. I won't call him back, and I won't be passing his message along to Renee. But if I WERE going to call him, here's what I'd say:
You told me he knew how to open your gate. You told me he loved to wander, and usually went straight to our apartment complex. Why didn't you get a better gate? And why the fuck didn't you have fucking tags on him? Or if you ever get a dog again-- and I hope you don't-- you might want to consider getting the dog chipped. Thirty fucking dollars-- if that-- and any vet or shelter can get him back to you.
You told me he killed at least eight cats that you know of. Incidentally, and now that it's at least nine, how do you know the others were all strays like you said? Your dog roams-- you think other people might not have been waiting for their cats to come home? Someone else isn't sitting by an empty food bowl? Point is, he's not 100% warm and cuddly. You should have taken better precautions.
Your dog had a pronounced limp. How were we to know, dirty and thirsty and hungry and covered in ticks as he was, that he hadn't been hit by a car somewhere and needed help? How were we to make the call that he was somehow safer on the street? Oh, and one word: Frontline. You keep him outside in the summer without any kind of tick protection? Shame on you.
I have your phone number. All I have to do is give it to Renee or the police, and you're going to be incredibly lucky if you don't get sued. She tried to help your dog, and wound up in the hospital, and with a dead cat. You might want to think about that before you call me again.
If you loved him so much, why did you go on vacation knowing he'd disappeared? If you'd started calling around the day he'd run away, he'd be with you right now.
You didn't want to know if he was dead, so you had a friend call me. You didn't want to speak to me directly, so you left me a voicemail. You knew your dog could get out and you did nothing about it. I'm sensing a trend, here.
Another thing? Male dog. Opens gates. Hates cats. NOT FIXED. Can you honestly say you didn't see this coming? A female in season anywhere near you, and OF COURSE he's going to take off. A tabby wandering down the road? Off he goes.
I don't like being the instrument of inevitability, but that's how it turned out. This was tragic. It could have been avoided, but it wasn't. I did everything I could. I even tried to track him down to see if a Lab rescue could come get him. This was a train wreck caused by one person. And that person was not me. That person was not Renee.
And Rets and Nessie paid for it.