23:36 Jan 23 2009
Times Read: 687
I have a few pet peeves in life. Everyone does. Today, I had the oh-so-joyful experience of dealing with my biggest one. I walked across my front lawn to get the mail this afternoon, came back into the house, went to take my shoes off only to realize that I apparently stepped in a pile of dog crap. UGH! I hate stepping in dog crap in my own freaking yard!
We don't have a dog. Our neighbors that do are really good about keeping their dogs in their own yards. However, there is this one dog that roams around crapping in everyone's yard, and no one in the neighborhood knows who it belongs to. It's not a stray. It's healthy, clean, well fed and has a collar. But...it's never with an owner. It just runs around wherever it wants, whenever it wants. And it's a BIG freaking dog! I'd say it probably weighs in at at least 100 pounds.
Now, unexpected piles of dog crap aside (even though that does seriously bother me), we don't know if this dog is dangerous or not. One day, a month or so ago, my older son was going out to get the mail. He was standing at the edge of the yard, looking both ways before he crossed the street to the mailbox, and here comes this dog out of nowhere. It stands there, directly beside our mailbox, and starts barking at my son. Luckily, me being the paranoid parent that I am, I was standing in the front door watching him, so I told him to get back in the house. He turned and started to run, which I immediately corrected, knowing that was the worst thing to do. I had him turn back around and walk slowly backwards towards the house. All the while, the dog was crossing the street, almost as slowly as my son was walking, and it was still barking. Thankfully, my son had a shorter distance to go to get to the front door than the dog had to go to get to my son. Needless to say, as soon as my son got close enough, I grabbed his arm, yanked him inside, and slammed the door. Unfortunately, by the time I got out the phone book and looked up the number for animal control, the dog was long gone.
This was the only time we've had any kind of encounter with the dog. Normally we'll be inside and see it out the window, doing its business in our yard, or our neighbor's yard. As always, by the time I get the phone and start to dial animal control, the dog has disappeared.
I'm an animal lover. I especially love dogs, but after a year and a half of this dog running free, the boundaries have been pushed beyond an acceptable level. I now have the number for animal control posted on my refrigerator, and one of these days, this dog will be caught. I hate to do it, because I know it's not the dog's fault, but something needs to be done to get the owner to do what they're supposed to be doing.
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