PS- Months later I encountered Shaggy on leash on a walk in the neighborhood with his owner. She relates he got out of the yard on 4th. They live maybe a mile away. She adopted the dog as a semi-feral stray. He originally been living a creek near Alum Rock Park.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
The End for Shaggy
I got a call this Tuesday from the Shelter in San Jose. Shaggy was picked up by his owners. Given that the Shelter is closed Monday, Shaggy was picked up late Friday and the chip company is strictly 9-5 M-F. The shelter had to have called the owners today. The head of the shelter said they came right out to get him. Given she called me around noon I suspect his owners dropped everything, and came right into the shelter.
PS- Months later I encountered Shaggy on leash on a walk in the neighborhood with his owner. She relates he got out of the yard on 4th. They live maybe a mile away. She adopted the dog as a semi-feral stray. He originally been living a creek near Alum Rock Park.
PS- Months later I encountered Shaggy on leash on a walk in the neighborhood with his owner. She relates he got out of the yard on 4th. They live maybe a mile away. She adopted the dog as a semi-feral stray. He originally been living a creek near Alum Rock Park.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Curse Your Sudden but Inevitable Betrayal
All last week I've been working with Shaggy. I feeding him on my morning, and after work walks. Slowly I'm gaining his trust. I've gotten him to sit before I feed him. Then feeding him by hand. Shaggy has even let me stroke and scratch him while he eats. (His skin is in bad shape covered in scabs from fleas.) He is still leery of me. Jumping nearly a foot in the air when I sprayed him with an herbal anti-flea/tick treatment. By Friday the flea treatments seem to have worked as he isn't constantly scratching.
Then late Friday the fateful call came. I was home early from work. (The new "faster" internet connection was having issues which left us off the internet, phones unusable, and the alarm occasional going off.) My wife was down with a migraine which left us unable to head out camping, and I was wondering how to broach the idea capturing Shaggy today. At which point my phone rang. Lisa, an animal control officer, was in the area looking for Shaggy.
I grabbed some food, Indy and headed out meet up with her. We cross the dry creek and approached Shaggy's den. Shaggy comes out as usual out when I call, and seems happy to see Indy. He is leery of Lisa, but food convinces him rapidly to approach us. He recognizes her attempts to slip a leash on him, and easily evades her.
So we regroup. She puts the food bowl down, and positions a snare pole's loop around it. Shaggy is leery, but I feed him a little by hand. He goes for it, and Lisa expertly loops the snare pole around his neck and pulls it tight.
Shaggy desperately writhes in the nooses grip. My heart sinks at the betrayal of his fragile trust. The struggle lasts an eternity, or perhaps as much as 20 seconds. Indy is draw by Shaggy's struggles, and I have to hold him back. I don't know if it was an attempt to help, discipline, or just curiosity. After Shaggy calms a bit more we head back with obvious unease and occasional attempts to bolt. Shaggy seems to calm when I bring Indy to walk beside him.
The creek that we had easily crossed a few minutes before seem a bit daunting to cross with Shaggy. I offer to walk Shaggy back to the bridge while she drives over to meet us. I walk back with Shaggy and get a number of odd looks as I walk through the more populated park area. He still has snare pole and a leash around his neck, and he is a bit wild on the leash. Soon he settles, and the walk is some what pleasant and strange.
We meet up with Lisa and she scans him. To her surprise she find an embedded microchip. We both had until this point thought that Shaggy had been abandoned by the creek. It's possible given his skittishness that he was frighten by fireworks, and has been lost for a month or so. The chip is an unfamiliar one to her, and not used by local shelters or most vets in the area. The company that issues it has an 1800 number only staffed 9-5, and that 9-5 isn't PST.
Lisa tells me they will attempt to find his prior owners, and if they can't be found then he will be tested for suitability for adoption. If he fails he will be put down. She isn't hopeful given how much he shys from touch. I ask if I can foster him or adopt if he fails. No apparently only a rescue group would be able to claim him at that point. I'm not entirely surprised. I've figured that I might need to involve a rescue group to find him a home or retrieve from the pound. I've already sounded out a few groups. I'd have to foster him myself as most rescue groups are pretty much completely full.
Then late Friday the fateful call came. I was home early from work. (The new "faster" internet connection was having issues which left us off the internet, phones unusable, and the alarm occasional going off.) My wife was down with a migraine which left us unable to head out camping, and I was wondering how to broach the idea capturing Shaggy today. At which point my phone rang. Lisa, an animal control officer, was in the area looking for Shaggy.
I grabbed some food, Indy and headed out meet up with her. We cross the dry creek and approached Shaggy's den. Shaggy comes out as usual out when I call, and seems happy to see Indy. He is leery of Lisa, but food convinces him rapidly to approach us. He recognizes her attempts to slip a leash on him, and easily evades her.
So we regroup. She puts the food bowl down, and positions a snare pole's loop around it. Shaggy is leery, but I feed him a little by hand. He goes for it, and Lisa expertly loops the snare pole around his neck and pulls it tight.
Shaggy desperately writhes in the nooses grip. My heart sinks at the betrayal of his fragile trust. The struggle lasts an eternity, or perhaps as much as 20 seconds. Indy is draw by Shaggy's struggles, and I have to hold him back. I don't know if it was an attempt to help, discipline, or just curiosity. After Shaggy calms a bit more we head back with obvious unease and occasional attempts to bolt. Shaggy seems to calm when I bring Indy to walk beside him.
The creek that we had easily crossed a few minutes before seem a bit daunting to cross with Shaggy. I offer to walk Shaggy back to the bridge while she drives over to meet us. I walk back with Shaggy and get a number of odd looks as I walk through the more populated park area. He still has snare pole and a leash around his neck, and he is a bit wild on the leash. Soon he settles, and the walk is some what pleasant and strange.
We meet up with Lisa and she scans him. To her surprise she find an embedded microchip. We both had until this point thought that Shaggy had been abandoned by the creek. It's possible given his skittishness that he was frighten by fireworks, and has been lost for a month or so. The chip is an unfamiliar one to her, and not used by local shelters or most vets in the area. The company that issues it has an 1800 number only staffed 9-5, and that 9-5 isn't PST.
Lisa tells me they will attempt to find his prior owners, and if they can't be found then he will be tested for suitability for adoption. If he fails he will be put down. She isn't hopeful given how much he shys from touch. I ask if I can foster him or adopt if he fails. No apparently only a rescue group would be able to claim him at that point. I'm not entirely surprised. I've figured that I might need to involve a rescue group to find him a home or retrieve from the pound. I've already sounded out a few groups. I'd have to foster him myself as most rescue groups are pretty much completely full.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
A Shaggy Stray
Over two weeks ago I had a bit of a scare when a collarless dog emerged out of the creek and head right for Indy. Indy's not dog aggressive. He in fact will ignore major provocation from small dogs, and tries to defuse situations with larger or more dominate dogs. That said he has proven willing to try to go head to head with dogs close to his own size that are doggy polite. He's never bitten another dog, but he has cowed or driven off other dogs. This dog fit the bill for trouble young, full of energy, and slightly smaller. Just the type of dog to mistake Indy's laid back tolerance for a submissive dog.
The encounter went fine the dog was happy to see Indy, and even tried engage Indy in play. Even better he stopped pressing the issue when Indy, annoyed by the attempt, asserted himself. At the time I thought nothing of it as I see the occasional loose dog in the creek area. As the week progressed I noted that a prime cat hang out stopped having cats, but Indy still often stopped to sniff the area. Also I increasing saw the neighborhood cat closer to the park rather than the cat hangout.
Last week before my vacation I met the dog again, and noted that the dog was far more matted. He still was friendly, but I noted that he had all the ear marks of a stray. When I returned I expected to find that he had moved on. The area regularly used by dog walkers, runners, and bikers. Not all the dogs walked in the area are friendly to other dogs. To my surprise not only was he still in the area, but he had establish a den. Even more surprising is that he and Indy greeted and he joined us on our walk for a time. He acted healthy, but I saw warning signs. Areas where he had gnawed on himself, and continued scratching.
I wandered a bit and ran into some on my fellow dogwalkers. An older fit gentleman with a high energy you pitbull that always pestered Indy to play, and seem to enjoy Indy running him off. Said he'd been dened up all week, and like to play with his dog. The older couple with a flat-coated lab of questionable socialization said they had started feeding him, but were worried they were leaving on vacation soon.
It seemed that a responsible dog lover would call the local shelter and have them send some one out. Sure some of you are wincing, but this is the Bay Area. The local shelter has dogs that have been up for adoption for 2 months. The San Mateo Shelter has a senior pit bull who had been there for years until it was adopted. I could make sure they knew I'd foster the dog if it came to it. There are rescue groups around. It was simple they'd send some one out. I could work from home and lead them right to the dog. We could lure him with food and Indy. So I filled out the form on the local animal control site.
A day passed... Hmm the 2nd day around 4 I called the non-emergency line. I was on hold until 5 when they went home. Thus hatched my daring plan I'd capture the dog my self. Sure he was wary, and grabbing him with my hand might not go well. A dog bite needed to be avoided at all cost. I reported it they come get him to check for rabbis, but it would greatly increase the chance he'd be labeled dangerous and put down. If I didn't report it I be in for a series of painful shots.
So the obvious thing to do was to gain his trust enough to slip a leash on him. Deciding that I nicknamed him Shaggy and set out to gain his trust. I'm sure he's not going to understand my eventual betrayal, but I suspect it will be is his best long term interest.
The encounter went fine the dog was happy to see Indy, and even tried engage Indy in play. Even better he stopped pressing the issue when Indy, annoyed by the attempt, asserted himself. At the time I thought nothing of it as I see the occasional loose dog in the creek area. As the week progressed I noted that a prime cat hang out stopped having cats, but Indy still often stopped to sniff the area. Also I increasing saw the neighborhood cat closer to the park rather than the cat hangout.
Last week before my vacation I met the dog again, and noted that the dog was far more matted. He still was friendly, but I noted that he had all the ear marks of a stray. When I returned I expected to find that he had moved on. The area regularly used by dog walkers, runners, and bikers. Not all the dogs walked in the area are friendly to other dogs. To my surprise not only was he still in the area, but he had establish a den. Even more surprising is that he and Indy greeted and he joined us on our walk for a time. He acted healthy, but I saw warning signs. Areas where he had gnawed on himself, and continued scratching.
I wandered a bit and ran into some on my fellow dogwalkers. An older fit gentleman with a high energy you pitbull that always pestered Indy to play, and seem to enjoy Indy running him off. Said he'd been dened up all week, and like to play with his dog. The older couple with a flat-coated lab of questionable socialization said they had started feeding him, but were worried they were leaving on vacation soon.
It seemed that a responsible dog lover would call the local shelter and have them send some one out. Sure some of you are wincing, but this is the Bay Area. The local shelter has dogs that have been up for adoption for 2 months. The San Mateo Shelter has a senior pit bull who had been there for years until it was adopted. I could make sure they knew I'd foster the dog if it came to it. There are rescue groups around. It was simple they'd send some one out. I could work from home and lead them right to the dog. We could lure him with food and Indy. So I filled out the form on the local animal control site.
A day passed... Hmm the 2nd day around 4 I called the non-emergency line. I was on hold until 5 when they went home. Thus hatched my daring plan I'd capture the dog my self. Sure he was wary, and grabbing him with my hand might not go well. A dog bite needed to be avoided at all cost. I reported it they come get him to check for rabbis, but it would greatly increase the chance he'd be labeled dangerous and put down. If I didn't report it I be in for a series of painful shots.
So the obvious thing to do was to gain his trust enough to slip a leash on him. Deciding that I nicknamed him Shaggy and set out to gain his trust. I'm sure he's not going to understand my eventual betrayal, but I suspect it will be is his best long term interest.
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