Animal Control Schmanimal Control

So, apparently with all of the budget cuts and the fact that the city, county and not to mention the state of California are all flat busted broke, the animal control department doesn't do a whole lot other than run the shelter anymore. No dogcatcher driving around town picking up strays, you've got to do that yourself now.

Yesterday I look out into the backyard and see the big black dog from next door in our yard. As anyone who was at the barbecue last weekend remembers, the poor starved for attention and living in filth dog next door was trying to tear down the fence to come join the party. He managed to break through it yesterday morning and there he was trotting around the backyard. So, I go out to ask him what the heck he thinks he is doing in my backyard and he immediately starts jumping on me because he is so excited to see a human being. But I don't want him jumping on me and Genie is trying to hide from this big black dog, so I go open the front gate, the dog jumping on me the entire time, and let him run out front. I go next door to see if someone is home and the front door is wide open with the security screen shut. No cars in the driveway, but if the front door is open someone must be home, right? No, the two little dogs are at the door barking like maniacs and the big black dog is jumping on me and then he sees a cat on the fence and he's frantically trying to get the cat and nobody is answering my banging on the door.

I go back to our house and here is poor Lucy in her basket on the front porch and big black dog sees her and starts barking and she is freaking out and is hissing and backing up against our front door with her tail all bushy and her claws ready and the dog is barking at her and I'm yelling at the dog.

I finally shoo him away and Lucy runs up the tree in terror and then the dog sees a woman down the street walking along so he runs over to her and she proceeds to start screaming because she is afraid this big dog is going to bite her.

I get back inside the house and am then held hostage for about an hour while big black dog is sitting at our front door.

I call animal control where you get a recording telling you to leave a message and about how they don't come out to pick up animals anymore unless they are injured or dead (now there's a thought!) and if you have a stray dog bring it to the shelter. So, I leave a message and then start to give our phone number and I CAN'T REMEMBER IT so I have to go look it up on our phone bill and then call them back to leave another message saying I'm an idiot and CAN'T REMEMBER my phone number so here it is.

Later someone from animal control finally calls me back so I tell them the story of the dog and the breaking of the fence and the terrorizing of the woman down the street and the filthy never cleaned up backyard that it lives in and the neglect and she says that they will send a letter about violating leash laws and being a responsible pet owner. And that's all and I can call code enforcement about the dog poop and here's the number.

The dog appears to have run off (good!) and then later in the day I see the woman next door pulling pieces off of the fence and replacing them. I've put bricks in front of the hole in the fence so I think the fence issue is maybe fixed and who cares about the dog.

Then a little while later, here is the dog in the backyard AGAIN having torn another hole through the fence. So, before I go get him out of the yard, I go next door and bang on the door again because she was just home, right, but nobody is there. So, I let the dog out again and he goes tearing across the yard and she must have just pulled up because here she is and the dog is running up to her.

And then I went OFF on her. I won't repeat everything I said because there was a lot of cussing involved because by now I am totally LIVID and so angry I can hardly see straight. Basically I told her to take her EFFING! dog to the pound because it's quite obvious that she has no intention of taking proper care of it and why does she have a dog anyway when the only interaction she has with it is yelling at it when it jumps on her?

Long story short, she admits that she doesn't have the time or energy to take care of the dog and is hardly ever home because of work but she just can't take the dog to the pound and in fact just spent $200.00 getting it out of the pound from the last time it ran off.

ARE YOU JUST INCREDIBLY STUPID OR WHAT!?!

So, I think the drama is over with for a while and then a few hours later THE DOG IS IN THE YARD AGAIN! This time the woman's mother is at the house and I see her car in the driveway but she doesn't answer the door right away so I start back to our house and here the dog is chasing the cats from next door and they are terrified and the mother finally comes outside and says there's not much she can do about the dog getting in our yard because her daughter has gone off to buy more stuff to fix the fence with. And I say, and not too kindly, that you can PUT THE DOG IN THE HOUSE STUPID!

Later when Keith got home he went off on her too and told her that he would get her evicted if she didn't do something about the dog and is it really worth losing your home because of a dog?

So, we will see what happens. Probably not much, but maybe when she gets the letter from animal control and the letter from code enforcement and we start calling animal control every time the dog barks and code enforcement every time there is sh*t in the yard, she'll get her head out of her you know what.