Poisoning some kid's pet.

The other day I spied two dogs running loose in the neighborhood. Neither had a collar or tags and there certainly wasn't anyone running after them. They weren't threatening me or the kids as we went outside but I know absolutely zip about rabies and what might set a mutt off to bite someone. So I stopped at the local police station (located two blocks away) and reported them. The cop I spoke to assured me the animal control officer would check it out and set traps for the dogs. Okay, problem solved. Or so I thought.

Today as my kids and I get out of the minivan I see the same two mutts, running loose again. This isn't the first time I've been given a line of BS by the local cops, probably won't be the last either.

So I filled a bowl with anti freeze and set it out at the head of my driveway. This is how I discouraged a bunch of cats from hanging around my place a few years back, I really got tired of the smell of cat piss whenever I opened the front door. I'm sure the anti freeze will work equally well with dogs. If the owners can't be bothered taking care of "Fido" and the cops won't do their job then I'll just poison the sons of bitches. End of story.

I really hate doing this crap, I'm always bothered by the thought that some kid like my five year old daughter will be sobbing as her pet is put down due to the renal failure brought on by drinking anti freeze. But what the hell else do I do? I've my own kids to worry about. Let one of them get nipped by some animal without tags, have the mutt run off and I'll be faced with my child getting rabies shots. Last I heard, that was a brutal experience to say the least.

Asking around the neighborhood in order to find the dogs' owner won't work either. For some reason a fair number of neighbors consider me persona non grata. That isn't my paranoia kicking in either. As an example; not too long ago I took my kids to a local park just up the street from our sub development. There was a family there, turned out it was the group living diagonally across the street from me. I sat down on a nearby bench and glanced over to say hello.

They never looked at me. They never spoke to me. Their kids did their best to ignore mine. It's been this way since they moved in almost six years ago.

Ten minutes later they up and left.

Whatever. I'm too old to try to figure out why some folks give me the cold shoulder. Life isn't a popularity contest, sometimes people dislike you because you're too tall, too short, too smart, too stupid, too fat, too skinny, the wrong skin color, the wrong sex, are in the military, out of the military. You name it, someone will despise you for it. For some reason this is how a fair number of my neighbors relate to me. I really have no idea why. Screw 'em.

Oddly enough, the black couple that lives beside us get along just fine with me and mine. Go figure. FWIW, they're the only blacks (although they seem to get along okay with the other neighbors). Maybe they're just glad we live here, the former owner was a stereotypical small town cop from all I've heard and seen. He might have given them some grief. I know we don't throw wild assed parties like he did, maybe thats why we're unpopular with some of the other residents. Whatever.

So the dogs get poisoned, maybe some other animals will too. I've my children to worry about and trusting that some idiot who owns a free roaming animal has had their pet properly vaccinated but forgot to put their tags on just isn't in my game plan.

But the thought of a sobbing little girl watching her pet die still bugs the snot out of me. If someone is going to own an animal they should take proper care of it.

Damn!

Thanks for listening.