Even though I had told the Animal Control officer at the time of filing the complaint that follow-up wouldn't be necessary, after what my friend told me they had said, I decided to call them and find out what the heck was going on. At the very least to put my mind at ease that I had done the right thing.
Well--guess what, my friend was not lying when she said the complaint was that she was letting her dogs run loose. Somehow between the Animal Control office and her house the story got switched from keeping the dogs in cramped cages inside the house to letting them run freely outside the house. As the officer said, "it got garbled." I'll say! On one hand, that makes it less likely that she will pinpoint me--on the other hand, it makes ME look like a fool. Or worse yet, a crank. Especially when he said he found nothing amiss. Well, that's good. Maybe she has cleaned up her act and is allowing the dogs more freedom in the house. But that is not what I saw when they lived in their old house and I was not the only one aware/concerned about the situation. Her neighbor, for example, saw even worse but chose not to get involved. Well, now she knows there are people who are looking out. But I don't appreciate my complaint being mishandled in such a way.
So apparently all the dogs are happy and healthy and there is no reason for complaint. That's good.
But now, tonight, I was faced with another animal issue of a different kind--and again, this one involves a member of my church who is also a neighbor.
Seven weeks ago his cat gave birth to kittens. Before they were really old enough to leave Mom, he gave them to the girl next door. She's 14 and not exactly the brightest lightbulb in the bunch. I don't know if she is on the spectrum but anyone talking to her can tell she is a bit slow and hasn't a clue as to how to deal with real life.
So tonight I am outside finishing up my dinner (I like to cook and eat outside when the weather is nice) and here she comes with a tiny kitten. Oh, no. Oh, yes. You see, I am the neighborhood "Cat Lady" and therefore the person to go to if you have a cat you don't want. And you don't want the bother of finding a good home.
"Do you want--" "NO!" I said. "I cannot take in any more cats." Her face fell. She can't keep him and there are two others at home. So I told her, put up posters at the vet offices, the stores, call the rescue places. "But I don't have a car!" she said. It turns out that her neighbor, the one who recently started going to my church as a result of the kids' Bible Club, gave her the three kittens because HE didn't want them. I said, "Then it is HIS responsibility to find them homes." But he won't take them back and so everyone has left it up to this poor dimwitted girl (and I'm not saying it as a putdown) to find homes for them even though she has no money and no access to transportation. And I bet it was her parents that said "Go to Cat Lady."
Except Cat Lady isn't going along with the plan. I told her that her neighbor needs to get Mama Cat fixed ASAP because I can guarantee that we will be having this conversation again in three months' time. She's standing there looking at me like I am speaking Chinese. This isn't going the way Mommy and Daddy said it would. I said that I charge for home-finding services (hey, gas is already high and is expected to go even higher with Hurricane Isaac). She said "Craig's List?" Well, you can try. I mean what can I say? All the adults around her have dumped their responsibilities on her and she hasn't the wit to understand. THEN she says something about she doesn't want the cat because she is going to get a puppy! WTF! You are telling me you can't afford the cat, you can't afford this, you can't afford that--but you are going to get a puppy in a house that already has 2 dogs and one of them a Pit Bull which is NOT allowed by park rules. If she had been an adult of normal intelligence I would have gone off on her and HOW!
I get SO ANGRY when people criticize the work I do because it involves animal testing which they think is cruel. One of the things I get asked is, "but they kill the animals afterwards, don't they?" Yes, and I guarantee that those animals meet their end in a much more humane way than these three little helpless kittens. The best case scenario which I don't see happening is that they will go to Animal Control where, if they aren't adopted in a week's time (most aren't), they will be put in a cage with other terrified dogs and cats and gassed to death. We do not do that to our lab animals! Yet I do not hear anyone dissing Animal Control. What will most likely happen is these kittens will be taken out to the country somewhere and "dropped off" to make their way. Meanwhile crop number 2 is most likely on its way . . . I suppose I could take the little ones to my vet and see that they have a humane end but I don't like doing that and the vet doesn't like doing that either and besides, why the HELL should I pay for someone else's responsibility?
And yet, as long as they say the right thing about Jesus, this man and his family can be full members of my church and no one (except me, the heretic) will think any the less of them for evading their responsibility. Of course not. Because as we have been learning, it is Grace Alone that saves. Works aren't necessary and in fact get in the way. So there's no real incentive to live a "moral" life.
Well--guess what, my friend was not lying when she said the complaint was that she was letting her dogs run loose. Somehow between the Animal Control office and her house the story got switched from keeping the dogs in cramped cages inside the house to letting them run freely outside the house. As the officer said, "it got garbled." I'll say! On one hand, that makes it less likely that she will pinpoint me--on the other hand, it makes ME look like a fool. Or worse yet, a crank. Especially when he said he found nothing amiss. Well, that's good. Maybe she has cleaned up her act and is allowing the dogs more freedom in the house. But that is not what I saw when they lived in their old house and I was not the only one aware/concerned about the situation. Her neighbor, for example, saw even worse but chose not to get involved. Well, now she knows there are people who are looking out. But I don't appreciate my complaint being mishandled in such a way.
So apparently all the dogs are happy and healthy and there is no reason for complaint. That's good.
But now, tonight, I was faced with another animal issue of a different kind--and again, this one involves a member of my church who is also a neighbor.
Seven weeks ago his cat gave birth to kittens. Before they were really old enough to leave Mom, he gave them to the girl next door. She's 14 and not exactly the brightest lightbulb in the bunch. I don't know if she is on the spectrum but anyone talking to her can tell she is a bit slow and hasn't a clue as to how to deal with real life.
So tonight I am outside finishing up my dinner (I like to cook and eat outside when the weather is nice) and here she comes with a tiny kitten. Oh, no. Oh, yes. You see, I am the neighborhood "Cat Lady" and therefore the person to go to if you have a cat you don't want. And you don't want the bother of finding a good home.
"Do you want--" "NO!" I said. "I cannot take in any more cats." Her face fell. She can't keep him and there are two others at home. So I told her, put up posters at the vet offices, the stores, call the rescue places. "But I don't have a car!" she said. It turns out that her neighbor, the one who recently started going to my church as a result of the kids' Bible Club, gave her the three kittens because HE didn't want them. I said, "Then it is HIS responsibility to find them homes." But he won't take them back and so everyone has left it up to this poor dimwitted girl (and I'm not saying it as a putdown) to find homes for them even though she has no money and no access to transportation. And I bet it was her parents that said "Go to Cat Lady."
Except Cat Lady isn't going along with the plan. I told her that her neighbor needs to get Mama Cat fixed ASAP because I can guarantee that we will be having this conversation again in three months' time. She's standing there looking at me like I am speaking Chinese. This isn't going the way Mommy and Daddy said it would. I said that I charge for home-finding services (hey, gas is already high and is expected to go even higher with Hurricane Isaac). She said "Craig's List?" Well, you can try. I mean what can I say? All the adults around her have dumped their responsibilities on her and she hasn't the wit to understand. THEN she says something about she doesn't want the cat because she is going to get a puppy! WTF! You are telling me you can't afford the cat, you can't afford this, you can't afford that--but you are going to get a puppy in a house that already has 2 dogs and one of them a Pit Bull which is NOT allowed by park rules. If she had been an adult of normal intelligence I would have gone off on her and HOW!
I get SO ANGRY when people criticize the work I do because it involves animal testing which they think is cruel. One of the things I get asked is, "but they kill the animals afterwards, don't they?" Yes, and I guarantee that those animals meet their end in a much more humane way than these three little helpless kittens. The best case scenario which I don't see happening is that they will go to Animal Control where, if they aren't adopted in a week's time (most aren't), they will be put in a cage with other terrified dogs and cats and gassed to death. We do not do that to our lab animals! Yet I do not hear anyone dissing Animal Control. What will most likely happen is these kittens will be taken out to the country somewhere and "dropped off" to make their way. Meanwhile crop number 2 is most likely on its way . . . I suppose I could take the little ones to my vet and see that they have a humane end but I don't like doing that and the vet doesn't like doing that either and besides, why the HELL should I pay for someone else's responsibility?
And yet, as long as they say the right thing about Jesus, this man and his family can be full members of my church and no one (except me, the heretic) will think any the less of them for evading their responsibility. Of course not. Because as we have been learning, it is Grace Alone that saves. Works aren't necessary and in fact get in the way. So there's no real incentive to live a "moral" life.
