Well, I think I've hit the dog days of summer. Here's a little background before I get into the story. My neighbor across the street is Kathy. Her daughter Tiffany, and Tiffany's son & daughter moved into the house almost 2 years ago. The household has 2 dogs. Miss C is a 90-lb golden retriever belonging to Kathy. Jack is an 8 year old Chihuahua. MissC would bark a lot, but it was somewhat tolerable. Then, Jack moved in. In typical Chihuahua fashion, he yaps all the time, especially if someone is within a 2-house radius of him. It's a pretty good alarm system. This has worked great to keep unwanted solicitors away from us, due to their fear that the dogs will get out of the yard. It also lets me know if my expected visitors have arrived. Both dogs are left to roam the yard all day while everyone is at work. They are contained in the yard by an electric fence. The dogs will come up right to the edge of the yard, but that's it. Our regular UPS, FedEx, and mail carriers know that the dogs can't do anything, so they are generally pretty nice to the dogs. However, it's always funny to watch a substitute driver for any of those deliveries. My favorite, was one mail carrier that had a package to deliver and rather than brave the dogs, he drove his mail truck up the driveway, drop off the box and go back down the driveway.
However, the insanity started on Tuesday. I looked out my window when I heard Jack barking like crazy. (Miss C was inside the house because she can't handle the insane heat very well, leaving Jack outside by himself.) A delivery van pulled up, and in the usual substitute way, was very cautious of the dog. Jack kept yapping at him. Well, the guy was so scared of Jack, that he pulled out what looked like a small handgun and pointed it at Jack. Instantly my curiosity was peaked. Jack's the type of dog that can smell fear 100 yards aways and will yap even louder and chase you. He won't bite, but just chase. Anyway, the driver was walking up the driveway, while Jack followed him on the grass a couple yards away. The guy shot a couple warning shots away from Jack. Well, that set Jack off. He got all upset and barked louder and got a little closer, but still a couple feet away. They guy then shot 2 shots directly at Jack. The first one missed, but the 2nd one went straight through his eye. Jack flew back through the air a foot or two. The guy dropped off the boxes and then left. Well, in the meantime, I didn't see anything come out of the gun, except a puff of air. I thought it was an air gun that had just stunned Jack a little, so I didn't call anyone. When Tiffany got home from work, I told her that if Jack was acting weird, that was why. As it turns out, some sort of pellet or b.b. went through his eye and got lodged in the bone behind his eye. He's lost sight in his eye, but they're leaving the metal in there. The only way to get it out, would be to remove the eye.
Anyway, the media is now all over this story. Our local CBS affiliate interviewed me. Fox and the Greenville News refer to me as "a neighbor." It's kinda weird how it all happened. I mean, come on. It's a dog. I'm not a big fan of dogs myself, but the guy could have left the boxes at the curb by the the mailbox, or something. He didn't have to shoot the dog. On the other hand, the media has blown this way out of proportion. I understand that there is a rise of animal cruelty awareness. There has always been animal cruelty, but it's just been more publicized lately. I won't go off on my diatribe about violence towards innocent people and how that doesn't get punished as harsh as animal abusers. (See previous post.) There are already rumblings of lawsuits.
Here are a couple of the articles/videos about the story. (When they did the video, Ryan was taking a nap, but he was awake by the time I went inside. Oh well. His 15 minutes of fame will have to come at a later http://www.wspa.com/midatlantic/spa/home.html Click on "Chihuahua Shot" It will probably open in Windows Media, however, you'll probably get an "error" message on the internet page. There's a 30 commercial before the video starts. Surprisingly enough, they didn't twist my words too much.
http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770829028 Interestingly enough, I never said it was a postal worker, merely an delivery man. Tiffany was the one that said it was a mail man. I talked with the reporter the next day, after this was printed, and I think we have things cleared up.
Lessons I have learned: 1) Keep your nose out of other people's business. No matter what. 2) Don't try to be a good samaritan. (Obviously I say that tongue-in-cheek.) 3) The media will always take an animal abuse case further than a human abuse case.
Ahhhh, yes. These are the dog days of summer.
However, the insanity started on Tuesday. I looked out my window when I heard Jack barking like crazy. (Miss C was inside the house because she can't handle the insane heat very well, leaving Jack outside by himself.) A delivery van pulled up, and in the usual substitute way, was very cautious of the dog. Jack kept yapping at him. Well, the guy was so scared of Jack, that he pulled out what looked like a small handgun and pointed it at Jack. Instantly my curiosity was peaked. Jack's the type of dog that can smell fear 100 yards aways and will yap even louder and chase you. He won't bite, but just chase. Anyway, the driver was walking up the driveway, while Jack followed him on the grass a couple yards away. The guy shot a couple warning shots away from Jack. Well, that set Jack off. He got all upset and barked louder and got a little closer, but still a couple feet away. They guy then shot 2 shots directly at Jack. The first one missed, but the 2nd one went straight through his eye. Jack flew back through the air a foot or two. The guy dropped off the boxes and then left. Well, in the meantime, I didn't see anything come out of the gun, except a puff of air. I thought it was an air gun that had just stunned Jack a little, so I didn't call anyone. When Tiffany got home from work, I told her that if Jack was acting weird, that was why. As it turns out, some sort of pellet or b.b. went through his eye and got lodged in the bone behind his eye. He's lost sight in his eye, but they're leaving the metal in there. The only way to get it out, would be to remove the eye.
Anyway, the media is now all over this story. Our local CBS affiliate interviewed me. Fox and the Greenville News refer to me as "a neighbor." It's kinda weird how it all happened. I mean, come on. It's a dog. I'm not a big fan of dogs myself, but the guy could have left the boxes at the curb by the the mailbox, or something. He didn't have to shoot the dog. On the other hand, the media has blown this way out of proportion. I understand that there is a rise of animal cruelty awareness. There has always been animal cruelty, but it's just been more publicized lately. I won't go off on my diatribe about violence towards innocent people and how that doesn't get punished as harsh as animal abusers. (See previous post.) There are already rumblings of lawsuits.
Here are a couple of the articles/videos about the story. (When they did the video, Ryan was taking a nap, but he was awake by the time I went inside. Oh well. His 15 minutes of fame will have to come at a later http://www.wspa.com/midatlantic/spa/home.html Click on "Chihuahua Shot" It will probably open in Windows Media, however, you'll probably get an "error" message on the internet page. There's a 30 commercial before the video starts. Surprisingly enough, they didn't twist my words too much.
http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770829028 Interestingly enough, I never said it was a postal worker, merely an delivery man. Tiffany was the one that said it was a mail man. I talked with the reporter the next day, after this was printed, and I think we have things cleared up.
Lessons I have learned: 1) Keep your nose out of other people's business. No matter what. 2) Don't try to be a good samaritan. (Obviously I say that tongue-in-cheek.) 3) The media will always take an animal abuse case further than a human abuse case.
Ahhhh, yes. These are the dog days of summer.
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