Today has yet again been a long day... Started off taking Abbie her usual walk only to be greeted by a 'wee friend' up in the park on the hill behind Arnold Clark... This wee Jack Russell didn't seem to have an owner in sight... i carried on with abbie in our usual direction although he seemed to rather take a shine to abbie (she didn't like it at all - i ended up carrying her for most of the time after he joined us..)but by the time i got down to the main road, there was still no owner...
So... i decided to walk back up to the top of the hill - of course he followed us... i walked back into the housing estate as i knew of at least one house with a jack russell, but that particular dog came barking at us as soon as we walked towards its house.. so it wasn't theirs. Still no sign of any owner.
I should point out at this point that although the wee dude had a collar on he didn't have an id tag of any sort (take note dog owners please!!!!) if he had then i would happily have taken him back to his home... but no. (silly dog owner!!!) so - the dog is still at my heels (he really wanted to 'play' with abbie) i ended up deciding to walk down to the vets - to see if they could help. to be honest they weren't all that helpful - they wouldn't take the poor wee dude in - although they did scan him to see if he had a chip - he didn't (another note to dog owners - CHIP YOUR DOG!!!!!) so still no idea who the pooch belonged to - they suggested i take him to the police station... so i walk down there with the dog still at my heels...
get to the police station only to be told by the officer that because they didn't have kennels they couldn't keep him until his owner turned up (by this time i was rather harassed) i have to say i dug my heels in. He told me that i could take him to the Kirkie police station - but by this time i have less than an hour before i had to be in town for a meeting for work, and obviously i didn't have a car to take the dog anywhere - and of course when i asked him if he could do that himself his reply was no. heh. so i remained digging my heels in - there was no way i was letting that dog out again next to a main road - that would be careless and reckless. Although tbh the officer didn't seem to see this. But eventually he got hold of a number for the dog warden (after MANY attempts i have to say - lazy man) and then proceeded to tell me that the Warden could either pick the dog up from my flat or the police station... of course i opted for the station - i wasn't intending to take the dog back to my flat! 15 mins he said it would take... 30 mins later and the lady eventually arrived... the police officer easily could have watched the dog - he watched me watching the dog often enough! But yeh... at least the dog is safe in a dog home... or perhaps home with its owner by now... and hopefully if that is the case the owner has learned their lesson and will intend to get the dog chipped!!!!
so a lesson to all pet owners out there:
- Get your pet chipped!!!!
- Make sure your pet always has it's id. tag on!!!!
The thing that i found sad was how difficult it was for me to make sure that the wee pooch was kept in safety while lost from its owner. I would hope that if i ever lost Abbie someone would be able to find somewhere safe for her to stay until i found her. it really saddened me that neither the Vet nor the Police were all that helpful (although the officer did kind of redeem himself in the end - kinda). I've had at least one friend who has lost a dog - not to the main road, but to the canal. It's not a fine situation to face... but why do they make these things so difficult?! doh!
Anyway - i shall stop ranting.. here endeth the tale of Jake (thats what i decided his name was LOL)... I hope that if he isn't already, that he'll be back with his owner soon. =)
So that was the majority of my morning - afternoon i had a meeting for mission reunion next weekend and tonight was a report to the Kirk Session followed by Elevate publicity stuff - it's been crazy - but i have a strange sense of satisfaction...
I'm glad I helped wee Jake out. I'd dread to think what could have happened to him otherwise.Labels: Abbie, dog chip, dog owners, id tag, jake |
