The Great Dog Chase

WHAT an afternoon. LOL. My dogs started yipping up a storm about an hour and a half ago, and my uncle and I came out to discover two dogs in our yard. One looked sort of like a Great Dane -- big and white with black spots. Not sure what kind it was, but it was big. The other was a poodle of some type... Anywho, my uncle and I are pretty adamant about picking up strays. These two were NOT having it, though. LOL. We tried for the leashes and that wasn't happening. Then we tried treats, which definitely got their attention. That is, until Bailey, a.k.a. Miss Attitude, decided to push her weight around. All twenty pounds of it. She got in the Great Dane's face and barked her little head off. She's lucky to still have a head, folks.

Anyway -- these two obviously were related. Where one went, the other followed. The poodle was a little less skiddish, but every time I got close to catching her, the dane would bark her head off...then off they'd go down the street. We followed them for about a half hour...freaking out and suffering small heart attacks every time they'd run out into the road. Several other people tried to help catch them, but man...that dane was a toughie. Eventually they holed up under this empty house. They couldn't get out of there without going past us, so we basically caged them in and waited for animal control. A half hour later we're still waiting and the dogs are getting restless... Yeah, they tried to take off again. That's when Jen had to get down to some serious business.

We had a bag of treats and a cup of cereal some nice lady was kind enough to give us. I tapped out a few and walked away... repeating this several times until they started getting closer and closer. Eventually I got them to eat some out of my hands. Made a grab for the Dane, but her collar slid right off. Damn. Jen starts over.

Eventually, when the poodle was close enough, I managed to get a name and phone number off of her collar. Lucy's phone number was no good, tho -- that is, unless the people were lying. (Hey, it happens) We also got their vet and rabies license number off of the dane -- once again, address on file was no good. AAARGH. Anyway, by this time, they were getting pretty used to me. I led them over to the car and in they both went. ROFL. Did I mention it was POURING rain the entire time this was going on?? Not only was I soaked to the skin, but now we had roughly 120-150 lbs. of wet dog to contend with. :)

We took them home and let them loose in the garage. They scarfed down a few cups of food and then...only then...did animal control show up. Almost a good hour after we called them. Poor pups. The dane was a beautiful dog...and the poodle was SO sweet (once they got used to us). I'm sad to see them sent to the shelter and pray their family shows up to claim them. Sigh. I really hope this isn't a case of the owners abandoning them on a random street corner. Seems to happen a lot around here.

But at least they're safe and out of the rain.