On Tuesday I was making my way up to see Larry, who at that point was still stuck in the hospital, when I had a little run in with two dogs, two cops and a monk. Okay so the guy I'm calling a monk may or may not be a monk, but his license plate involved the word monk.
I was driving on one of the busier roads in the area when I say two dogs, a small beige Lhasa mix and some sort of Labbie thing with a wiry coat, playing on the median. This in itself was not good, but it was compounded by the fact that they were oblivious to the cars whizzing by. They would practically spill into the road and the traffic would slow down and swerve to avoid them. In fact they almost bumped into my car. As I looked forward after successfully not turning them into road pizza I saw a small car was pulled over on the median with a middle age guy beside it calling to the dogs. I too pulled over onto the shoulder of the median, put on my hazards and asked if they were his. He said no, but he was trying to do the right thing and round them up.
I then slid open the side door to my van and called out in a bright happy voice to the dogs "Wanna go for a ride?" Half the time this will work and a dog will bound into a car, ready to go. Unfortunately these two were members of the other half. I then got out to see what I could do. The larger of the two bounded over to me and I was able to snag him by his bright red and clearly new collar. He was an absolute doll, he just wanted to be friends and play with his little buddy. The other dog was another story, he would bark if we approached him and his body language clearly told me he would bite if pressed.
So now we had one grubby dog that we stuck in the back of my van and another dog swirling about. It was wary of us , but unwilling to leave it's companion. I decided we needed to call animal control. I fished out my cell phone from the car and called up Meryl to get the number. Just as I was about to dial, a cop pulled up behind me. He stepped out of his car and came around to ask if I needed any assistance. I told him the story so far and he called up animal control. Unfortunately they were busy and would be at least half an hour. The cop then joined in on trying to figure how to snag the Lhasa. Suddenly it hit me, I had some roast chicken in the car. I had made up a salad for lunch that I was planning on eating it while visiting Larry. I pulled out a piece of chicken, squatted down and held it out to the loose dog. He carefully approached me with his little nose twitching. Ever so slowly he stretched out and daintily nibbled the proffered treat. I still couldn't touch him, but I could bring him close. I tried looping a spare leash I had in the car over his head, but I couldn't quite pull it off.
At this point a second cop pulled up. I tried a new tactic and left a trail of chicken up into the van. It almost worked, but the van was a bit too high up and there was no way he was going to let us boost him in. Frustrated by the antics of the dog, one of the cops christened him hairball. I them said if he's hairball than the other one is goofball. We tried a few more times to corral the loose dog, but all that happened was that he got spooked and dashed across the road towards a car wash. The first cop had to go out on a call, but the second one remained and crossed after hairball. Monk too had to leave and I decided to give it one more try. I knew if I left with goofball we would probably never see hairball again. I got in it the van and edged out into traffic, crossed over and pulled into the car wash.
As I was parking the van I realized the parking lot had a small island near the car wash. I snugged the van next to it, hoping that now hairball would be able to step up into the van. I pulled out my slightly depleted lunch and lured the dog close. Hairball circled the van a few times until finally he decided to climb on in. I was inside and just before the dog got in the cop get the dogs rear a bit of a shove and closed the door.
Cool!
The cop then gave me a big thumbs up and handed me my lunch that I had left outside. He told me where the animal shelter is located and we parted ways.
The ride to the shelter was uneventful and the staff took the dogs away. Hairball was a bit difficult, but they were able to snag him with a looped leash and get him out of the car. I hope the dogs got claimed by their owner, but it would not shock me if they had been dumped. Goofball has a good chance with his outgoing personality. He would make somebody a great pet. Hairball, however, is another story. At least it will be a kinder end then getting squished by a car.
No comments:
Post a Comment