[Dailydrool] Overwhelming response to my post on the dog chained next door

[Val Brewer]

Thank you, Droolers. I have received more than two dozen responses to my post in 
the most recent Drool about wondering what would be the best course of action to 
follow to help the pitbull I discovered chained next door, not looking so great.

Yesterday I untangled the dog's lead from the machinery he was tangled 
with, gave the dog food and water (new bowls), cleaned up his area, and gave him 
a quilt to sleep on in his shed. I also left a note on the owner's door letting 
him know that I had done this and hoped he didn't mind. I identified myself as 
the lady next door with the bassets and kept the note friendly. Noone came over 
to see me after the two guys that live there came home. But the note disappeared 
off the door and today when I went over to check on the dog with more food and 
water, the dog had food in a bowl. I gave him a little more and filled his water 
dish. Interestingly, this afternoon someone (a woman I have never seen 
before) came over to the house and removed about half of the junk in the front 
yard and hosed down the driveway and area the dog was living in. I have still 
not talked in person to the owners. At this point I think the biggest concern 
may be the dog's skin condition (which could be mange or a staph infection or 
goodness knows what else--didn't look like fighting wounds to me, though pit 
fighting is a big problem here). The dog didn't look quite so skinny to me today 
(my imagination yesterday?) 


About half of the Droolers who wrote me suggested I involve the Humane Society; 
the other half suggested I proceed slowly trying to win over the owners to 
provide better treatment. I think I will talk to the folks at the Humane Society 
about the situation without naming any names or addresses--and see what they 
have to say. If the Humane Society were to take the dog, they would put him down 
because of his medical needs, which our Humane Society does not cover, plus we 
have an excess of pitbulls here and most do not get adopted. My husband is 
vehemently against involving the HHS if there are any alternatives. I also plan 
to talk to my vet about what the skin problem could be. My DH, and a few 
Droolers, have convinced me that adding this dog to our pack would not be the 
smartest move I could make; though if I end up with him I know of a Pitbull 
Rescue on Oahu, and could fly him over there (I have flown a few rescue bassets 
to Oahu to their new homes),

So this is what is up today. I can't tell you all enough how grateful I am to 
have you as a sounding board. Val  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.dailydrool.org/pipermail/dailydrool-dailydrool.org/attachments/20110615/297e6304/attachment.htm>