My Day Off From Moving

I started my day this Saturday having breakfast with my friend, Colista at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in town.  We both had a lot of laundry to do, so had decided to get it all done as quickly as possible by going to a local laundromat.  However, our plans changed with my seeing a posted ad for a nice fifth-wheel for sale about ten miles away, up in the Cleveland National Forest. 

We decided to see the RV, and then do the laundry.  Our plans were quickly changed when we were driving toward the area which lead into the mountains.  We happened upon a couple of loose dogs attempting to mate alongside the road.  Of course, since we are both animal lovers, and rescuers, the thought of more unwanted puppies really goes against the grain, but this situation was actually an emergency, as the male dog was a very large mixed Labrador, weighing in at eighty pounds, if not more.  The female was a little Chihuahua that weighed approximately seven pounds, and would die a horrible death, should the Lab actually be successful in his attempts to mate with her.

After trying repeatedly to get the smaller dog away from the large Lab, some people came outside of the corner house.  We asked a couple of times if they knew who owned the dogs, to which no one replied, at first.  Finally the woman said the Lab was theirs, and that someone apparently failed to close the gate securely, allowing the Lab to escape.  Then, she as well as a man who appeared to be her husband, and a young teenaged boy about sixteen years old, just stood around watching us trying to keep the Chihuahua alive, by at lease keeping the two dogs as separated as possible.  They just continued to do nothing.

I finally got angry with them, as all they could do, was to watch and do nothing. Finally, I practically yelled at them, to get their dog, as we had already called the pound. Finally, they got in their car, followed the dogs, and eventually got their dog on a leash and took him home. 

That left us still trying to get the little female Chihuahua, as she was still in heat, and running amok all over an area of about half a square mile, in and out of several streets, and up and down one that often has vehicles traveling pretty fast. The Chihuahua was still loose and running, heading farther, up a dirt road just this side of the freeway.  We got her cornered in a large semi-fenced area of some people's property. They also did nothing, even though they had large dogs which were fenced in an area that the little dog could have gotten into.

Eventually, the Chihuahua managed to get past us, and ran again down the dirt road, and headed again down the roads we had already been on.  She would have kept on running, except for the fact that by then, I was using my car to head her off.  She then went under a driveway gate into her own yard.  I honked the horn several times, so I could get the attention of the people inside. It was her yard, and they were also stupid people, who have had the dog for four years, and still didn't have her spayed.

I told the woman what had been going on, and she was pretty much not concerned over her little dog almost being killed.  She said she had gotten the dog from her mother, and her mother had the mother of her dog.  I asked why she allowed her little dog to be in such danger, and why had she not had her fixed, and she had a zillion excuses.

I offered to help pay for the surgery, and to even take the dog to the vet some thirty-five miles away for her.  Many rescuers and even the local animal shelter uses this vet, as his fees are much cheaper than any vets in our area, and he also does a very good job.

Two more stupid and unconcerned families living just a few doors apart, with obviously unlicensed dogs, since licenses for intact dogs is $50 per year, and getting that little one fixed would be cheaper than paying one years license.

I will be going back in a few weeks, and will also report her address to animal control. They already know the address of the people who have the intact, unlicensed Lab.

I also had to get some kitten formula for David, the man I have written about from time to time, as another of his cats had four kittens, and then something happened to the mama cat, so now the kittens have to be hand raised, if they live at all.  These kittens are now about two weeks old.  There are two males and two females. One male is black with a white chin.  The other male is marked somewhat unusual.  He is a tiger striped, with two stripes going down his back, much as the white stripes go down the back of a skunk.  I call that one L'il Stinker.  The females are as follows.  One is all black, and other one is a black tabby.

David realized how angry I was at the irresponsibility of his continued lack of taking his cats in to be fixed, so he asked me to go to PetSmart for formula, which must have nearly killed him.  He will buy food for them all, but he just refuses to get them corralled or altered. They all run all over the neighborhood, using people's yard for a litter box, and reproducing more coyote food.

I worked with this man about two and a half years ago, to get some thirty cats altered.  There were two or three kittens that were too young to get done at the time, so he promised he would follow through. He didn't get them fixed, and they are all dead, but not before reproducing.  I did go get the food, and showed him how to feed the babies, etc., but I also let him know that I am very close to never speaking to him again, since I care more about what happens to those cats than he does. 


Tens of millions of wonderful pets are destroyed annually just in the United States alone. Don't think that just because they are cute, someone will want them.  There simply aren't enough homes for all the cats and dogs that are born. Some are drowned, others are used as bait for fighting dogs, others are infected with upper respiratory illness, and die, or lose their eyesight, while others lose their eyes altogether, and if they survive, they cannot see, and again are at the mercy of whatever they have to face or starve, and they can't even fight for survival.

When a coyote hunts, whether domestic or wild animals, they approach from downwind, so the unsuspecting prey cannot even smell them approaching, until it's too late.  The coyote grabs them by the neck, or the back, paralyzing them, and carries them off, to be torn apart and eaten.  

PLEASE, don't allow your pets to breed and produce more unwanted creatures that will only be killed either by predators or starved and picked off by off by hawks, owls, or killed on the road or at an animal shelter because they couldn't place them all.