Animal shelters – municipal money well-spent

A lot of people are reluctant to take dogs to the county shelter when they find one. However, that’s the absolute best thing to do. If the dog doesn’t have an ID tag or chip and you can’t immediately locate the owner, they should go to animal control. If the dog belongs to a caring family, that’s the first place they will check. If you’re worried about the dog being put down, you can check on him yourself. I know that DeKalb will give you a tracking number and all the info you need. If the dog’s owner’s don’t come claim him, you can go back and get him!

I’ve got a sweet but very energetic mutt who I adopted a few years ago. Right after we got him, he made clear that any opening in the backyard would be exploited. Every time we thought we had it Stanley-proofed, he would dig, chew or jump his way his way out. Sometimes we couldn’t even figure out how he did it. He would usually run down the street to the creek and if he was out long enough he would eventually make it to the dog park. It was about a mile away from where we lived at the time and he knew exactly how to get there. Once, he even got himself into the park by standing at the gate and barking until someone let him in!

Then one day he got out and we couldn’t find him. He went the other direction and ended up running down the middle of Candler south of Agnes Scott chasing something. He would probably have been hit and killed if a good Samaritan didn’t stop his pickup in the middle of the road to block traffic in both directions so he could corral Stanley. That convinced us to get some professional help in securing the yard, but now whenever I see a dog like that I feel some karmic need to try to help.

*Glad to hear Major & Erin have been reunited!