Wild Dogs

I guess it's been awhile since I've written anything on this blog, so I won't skip over one of the more interesting stories that has happened to be lately, even though it's a sad story and it makes me a little sad to write it.  Once again, I found myself at the wrong place at the wrong time (or maybe, in this case, the right place at the right time...we'll have to see).

A few days ago when I was heading home from errands, I witnessed something horrific that I've been trying to get out of my mind.  While I was about to drive by, three wild dogs were killing one of the neighbors cats in their yard. The neighbors weren't home, so I knew I had to try to do something.  I stopped the car and tried to help, but I think the cat was already dead when I got there.

I got out of the car and screamed at the dogs, waved my arms, ran towards them, and did everything I could think of to get them to run--they didn't run away, in fact, they just sort of looked at me.  One was a pit bull and one of the others was a pit bull mix.  The two bulls started to approach me.  They didn't get close enough to touch, but it was clear by their body language that they weren't going to let me separate them from their kill.  When I realized I was in danger (and, thus, my baby was in danger as well), I got back in the car and drove up the road to my house.

There was a man and his little boy walking in the direction.  Thankfully, I was able to get them to turn around so that the boy wouldn't see the bloody mess and so that the dogs wouldn't try to hurt them for interfering like they nearly did to me.

I immediately called animal control, but as usual, they've been totally worthless.  They said they would send a patrol later in the day or the next day and asked me if I could do something to catch one of them.  Apparently, they don't "catch dogs" anymore, so they'll just leave it to the horrified, scared, pregnant lady that saw the attack.  (Incidentally, they didn't send the patrol, so I have to call them again on Monday.)  I drove back down to see if they had finally left the cat alone, but all of them gone when I got back and there was no sign of the cat.  I'm fairly certain that they dragged it away to eat it.

Let me set the record straight, I like dogs very much.  I also really like cats.  And, I really don't like the thought of any animal getting put down, but there is such a thing as being socially responsible.  I've seen them around for months now.  I was hoping that I could just leave them alone.  Still, I've recently heard that this isn't the only cat they've nearly killed and they aren't friendly towards any other animals.  One of my neighbors' dogs has also gone missing recently, and I suspect the incident might be related.  Because of the large amount of pets that have been mauled or killed by these dogs, as far as I'm concerned they're officially wild, feral animals and they no longer have my sympathy.  I can't ignore this problem any longer.

The point is, they were desperate enough to be hunting their own food and they aren't afraid of people.  It makes me wonder how long it'll be before they attack a person or a child.  Thankfully, all of my animals are indoor animals, but I don't feel safe walking around my neighborhood anymore.  This isn't the first time that those dogs have scared me into walking back to my house.  There are lots of children and pets in this neighborhood and I don't want anymore of them to get hurt.

So far they're in a pack of three, but something needs to be done before their pack gets bigger and they get even bolder.  I've decided to call animal control again.  If they won't help, I'll try the police, if they won't help, I'll try the news.  I might ask animal control to give me three large cages in the hopes of trapping the dogs, but I'm making this my business to fix this problem before I have my baby.  I don't want some kid to be traumatized by losing a much loved pet, or for anyone to get hurt.  I don't want to go to the news, but I really need animal control to do their job, because this isn't a problem I can fix by myself.  I'll keep you posted.  Hopefully, I won't have to do this again and in the long run I'll be saving more animals by putting down these three.