Witch Notes ~ 2/1/16 ~ Hell in a Hand Basket Edition

 

Everywhere I go now, I encounter vicious dogs. There are three pit bulls living directly across from me and two german shepherds living down each side street. The dog in the picture above lives on the road where we walk and has suddenly decided he doesn’t like us. The new people on the corner are nice, but they also have a dog that is aggressive when we walk by. Hilarious, considering the new owner is a police officer.

In 1985, my step-sister’s 4-year-old son, Christopher, was killed, mutilated beyond all recognition save for pieces of his torn shirt, by a pit bull next door to where my step-sister was working. He was cautioned not to go near the yard, but his ball went in and it was over in seconds. He had only been outside for a short time when it happened. My step-sister had just checked on him, maybe seconds earlier.

She was unable to leave the house for over a year that I know of. My father was married at the time to her mother, but they later divorced. She and I were both pregnant at the same time. My first son James was born in August, my nephew Christopher in November. I held him for the first and only time at Thanksgiving as we moved away the following February. I found out about his death from a news report on the radio when I was leaving the parking lot of a grocery store, nearly wrecking the car in the process. It was devastating.

You never know about an animal. You may believe that nothing can or will ever happen, and then it does. The girl living at the house across the street hid on her porch, refusing to speak to us when her three pit bulls trespassed on our property down by our home. We live on a rectangular-shaped five-acre parcel with eight-foot fencing, our home at the end furthest away from the road. The dogs had to crawl beneath a gate, traveling almost 800 feet to get to our home, crawling under another gate to do so. They became aggressive and attacked my husband when he tried to make them leave.

The woman at the home where one of the german shepherds lives believes all she has to do is stand inside her doorway and scream things like, you know you’re not supposed to be doing that..you know better than that..get over here..riiiight neoowww. I really can’t do it justice. I really can’t. She’s ridiculous and her dogs completely ignore her.

The young man with the german shepherd on the other side of us believes that because the dog is a police-trained dog, he will never hurt anyone..he’s police-trained..it’s not possible. The fact that he runs aggressively back and forth along the fence line, barking viciously, that’s just fine. The raised flower bed the dog runs on is less than two feet from the top of the chain-link fence, but that’s not a problem, because after all, he’s police-trained. Well, cool, but I’ve owned dogs that have had no trouble climbing a chain-link fence. The dog has already run out into the road at us twice, the second time, we told a young woman watching that it couldn’t happen again. I think that must have been the young man’s girlfriend. We still don’t know their relationship to the home’s owners but we’re assuming a son or daughter. Nice kids, though. Who cares if mom and dad lose their home or retirement account when the dog bites someone. Good thing they have all those travel trailers on the property. At least, they’ll have a dwelling. Somewhere.

As for the dog in the picture, something is going on in that house, or with that dog. I experience a cloudy feeling in my head when I walk past that house. I’m fine before and after walking by and it’s been happening since the dog changed its behavior. Someone is experiencing a lack of clarity, either through illness or deception, and the dog is responding in distress. Or, the dog is experiencing illness, perhaps dementia. Either way, it’s best that we change the route again.

We had a dog once that bit the state well inspector. It was dark, and instead of driving down the easement to our community well, the inspector chose instead to access the well site on our neighbor’s property from our driveway. When my husband showed him where our access gate was, the inspector walked within Muttley’s chained dog area. Muttley, a St. Bernard cross, with a car tow chain bolted both to his collar and to the tree, bit the guy on the ass, his wallet actually, causing him to stumble. He didn’t actually fall and was unhurt, but we had Muttley euthanized anyway. No one asked us to do it, but we felt it was the best course of action.

You see, this wasn’t the first occurrence with Muttley. He broke loose and chased the meter reader while I was in the middle of having my second child. My husband found him wrapped up in my neighbor’s hotwire when he came back home for some of my stuff after Joshua was born. When I returned home the next day, there was a letter in my mailbox from our electric company telling me how it was going to be. I waited until just before he was to come back to read the meter again, and gave them a call.

I told the guy on the phone that I would happily comply with everything, but I wanted to share some things with him about his employee. I observed the idiot on countless occasions walking within a foot of Muttley, taunting him. My friend on the other side of the highway had pigs and figured he was a city boy because every time he came on their property, the pigs would squeal, and the guy would jump 10 feet. She’d laugh all day about that. The guy at the electric company said that they don’t typically hire new employees, they fill empty positions from within and our meter reader was actually a lineman. He apologized for the letter, congratulated us on the birth of our new child, and assured me he would speak to the guy. I assured him I would still comply with the letter. But Goddess help me, I would have given anything to see Muttley chasing that guy. I might have even helped!

The guy at the electric company said that they don’t typically hire new employees, they fill empty positions from within and our meter reader was actually a lineman. He apologized for the letter, congratulated us on the birth of our new child, and assured me he would speak to the guy. I assured him I would still comply with the letter. But Goddess help me, I would have given anything to see Muttley chasing that guy. I might have even helped!

But here’s the thing. It’s not okay to make people afraid. And dogs that behave aggressively do just that. So as dog owners, we have to do whatever it takes to mitigate the problems these animals create. I agree that people have the right to protect themselves, and aggressive dogs do just that. But they can also hurt people and when that happens, you risk losing everything.

My husband spent an entire day helping the owner of the home with the police-trained dog who was having a water-related problem. It involved some digging, and we actually supplied the part that fixed his problem. We were happy to help and although unnecessary, he gave us some eggs to thank us. Now I wish he’d kept the eggs and instead controlled the dog. And since that doesn’t seem to be happening, the next time he needs help, he should ask the police-trained dog.

Oh, and the last I looked, the Left Behind Crowd is still at the refuge expressing their abandonment issues. These people sure are fussy. Even the FBI got tired of listening to them because now their internet access is gone and they can’t broadcast to YouTube anymore. Their revelations alone are a treasure trove for the FBI. But I have to admit, their drone-related comments were hilarious, not to mention when they hung up on a prospective attorney. It’s going to take a long time for the community of Burns to heal from this. They should do them all a favor and leave now.

~Blessed Be