Irresponsible relatives / Irresponsible pet owners

[anakhouri]

Thanks for the link, I am going to try the coyote-pee granules first as they are (allegedly) organic and I want to use them around mt vegetable garden.

[blas87]

We have an outdoor cat at my parents' house. The neighbors don't seem to mind her. She doesn't let anyone close enough to get to her, though, other than me or my Dad or our dog.

She pretty much lives in a space under our boat (that's been turned upside down and held up by support), and uses the bushes as the bathroom. She shows herself occasionally in the sun, rolling around in the grass. She comes running any time one of us goes outside.

Sometimes she'll be lingering around the front yard, if the dog is out or if one of us is out there, but if anyone drives by or walks past that she doesn't know, she runs. Same goes for as soon as it sounds like a train is coming.

[BrenDAnn]

My cat, like almost every other we've owned, is what I like to refer to as indoor/outdoor. He's very much an alpha male, loves to roam around, fight for females (even though he's neutered), and do the manly hunting thing. In the winter, though, he's an indoor boy. He hates snow. He hates rain. He seems to be scared of wind when he's out in it. Thankfully, our house sits on three lots, with no others around us until the very other end of the block. No neighbors to bother Tigger= happy kitteh!

[Andara Bledin]

When I was younger, I used to believe that all cats should have the opportunity to be indoor/outdoor cats.

However, after having pretty much every single cat I've owned disappear, get run over, get poisoned (if we could have proven it, we would have taken that bitch to court ), get injured, be attacked by dogs, catch deadly diseases, etc, etc, etc, we decided that maybe indoor only was a healthier decision.

All of our cats are currently indoor (with the exception of the queen getting some outdoor time merely because she's annoying as all hell if we don't, and all she wants is time laying in the sun) and the two males are healthier than any cats I've had before this point.

Back to the irresponsible pet owners, the second male is actually my brother's cat. But he's a very friendly guy who our own little guy loves playing with, so we don't mind at all, even if he does have super-fine fur that he sheds all over everything just for looking at him.

^-.-^

[anakhouri]

One major reason we never let Mei outside is that the vet said if we did she would need several more vaccines than the minimum she is getting. I'm not willing to pay that much more, plus put her in the way of all the dangers Andara described, plus put other animals in danger (she is a large cat, fully clawed, and hates other cats with a passion). Although I am guessing the roamers around her probably are not fully vaccinated like they should be

[Andara Bledin]

I would suggest getting the full run of vaccinations regardless of whether your cat is indoor or not: I have yet to meet a cat that had any interest in the outdoors that hasn't gotten out at some point.

The only ones that don't go out are the ones who fear the outside. I've got one of those, now. He loves to be at the windows or doors looking out, but the second you open the screen door, he high-tails it for another room.

^-.-^

[HYHYBT]

When I was younger, I used to believe that all cats should have the opportunity to be indoor/outdoor cats. However...

Those reasons are very similar to why I don't worry about mine coming and going as they please: mine tend to die of things like cancer and kidney failure.

I also like that they and the dog next door know each other. They don't exactly like each other, but the dog knows they're here and that they belong, and the cats know the dog is there and to keep an eye on him. Whereas if they were strictly indoor cats, when they inevitably did get out they'd be more likely to run into trouble with him.

[Nekojin]

This thread needs to rear its ugly head again.

A little more background. Andara's brother has four dogs: A quarter-wolf male (call him A for Alpha or Ace), a half-pitbull female (call her Q for Queen), and two male dogs that are mature pups from A and Q (call them J and T). Three months ago, he gave us $100 to keep the dogs at our place for "a month or so," because he can't keep dogs where he's staying now, and he's having a hard time finding a new place that will accept four large dogs.

Q went into heat last week. Brother is aware, and continues to leave all four at our place. Q starts getting aggressive at any dog other than A who tries to mount her, especially J and T (instinct saying that they shouldn't get a turn).

So we're getting ready for work. We go out, start filling the dogs' food and water dishes, and J decides that he wants to have another go at Q (not that he's been successful yet, but he's an idiot and can't figure out when he's not welcome). Q snarls and snaps at him. A snarls and snaps at him. Q snarls and snaps at A, and then bites. J frenzies, and starts biting A as well. T, who is the biggest of them all, also frenzies, runs over, and joins the action.

... I should really skip the detail, honestly. It's can't-stop-watching type of urban horror, and it took us far too long to break it up. When all was said and done, A was bloody from head to tail, and J and T were a bit injured as well. I collected an abrasion on my ankle, where J narrowly missed biting me (got a mouthful of pant leg, and I took a gash from the denim cloth - thankfully, no actual tooth-on-flesh going on). We separate them, and with great difficulty, we get A into a gated section of the back yard. We figured that he's too old and injured to jump out, and left him some food and water until we get back home.

Andara calls Brother once we get to work, gives him a terse explanation of what happened, and he agrees to come get Q after work. So we all go about our business.

We get home 8-ish hours later, and there's a small crowd in our next-door neighbor's yard. As we pull up, an Animal Control truck that was pulling away turns back around, and an officer gets out to talk to us. It seems that the dogs have been fighting, and just as viciously, all day. A isn't in the fenced-in enclosure at the back of the house either. The Animal Control officer talks to us, lectures us on animal care, and tells us that he needs to write us up to have the dogs taken to a vet and looked at, OR he can take the dogs right then and there, and waive the customary $60 per dog fee.

We're torn, since Brother is on his way, but the Officer can't afford to stick around for who-knows-how-long until Brother gets there, and Brother isn't answering his phone. So we reluctantly agree to take legal responsibility for making sure the dogs get to a vet in the next 48 hours. As the Officer is getting back in his truck to start doing paperwork, J tries again, and within moments is on his back, being savaged by both Q and T.

So I shout to the Officer that he can take them (because at this point, I'm guessing that they're all in need of serious medical care, and Brother certainly doesn't have the money to handle it). He asks me for help in separating them, since they know me (and I don't blame him, as Pit Bull bites are nothing to laugh about). With difficulty, I drag Q away, but J and T have a hold of each others' ears, and WILL. NOT. LET. GO. Toss Q into one of the cages on the back of the truck, figuring that getting her away from them will help them calm down - nope, they're still trying to savage each other. I notice that T still has his collar on, so I wait for a good opening, then grab the collar and YANK. Within a few moments, he coughs and lets go; J tries to get a new grip. I kick J away, get Andara to hold T's collar for a minute, and grab J by the scruff of the neck, and drag him to the truck. Once T is the only dog left in sight, he calms down, and he gets tossed into the truck as well.

Once that's done, the Officer looks around for A. We finally find him under the house - right smack in the middle of the crawlspace, shivering and not responding to attempts to get his attention. The crawlspace isn't too narrow for any of us to get in, but with an injured dog, it goes unsaid that NONE of us are going to go in after him.

The Officer writes up paperwork for us - release forms for the three he's taking away, and the aforementioned citation to get A to a vet. He's shortened the time from 48 hours to 24 hours - we notice that change, but don't challenge it at all. He takes about 20 minutes to get the paperwork squared away, and I take the papers in to Andara to have her sign them (political maneuvering with regard to her brother). Once she's signed them, I get additional information from the Officer, and head back inside.

You'd think we're done here, right? Wrong! Brother shows up just before the Officer leaves, and starts arguing with the Officer about the matter - he's here now, why can't he take his dogs back?

I leave him to argue with the officer, but I'm in earshot for long enough for the officer to say something fairly "politically safe," but the actual meaning of what he said was that if he had anything to say about it, Brother wouldn't be getting his dogs back at all.

After another 20 minutes, I hear the truck leave, and Brother starts coaxing A out from under the house. A is still completely unresponsive and shivering. More than half an hour of coaxing later, he finally gets the dog out. I'm pretty sure that he's going to end up taking the dog to the Animal Control shelter and releasing him to them, because he sure as hell cannot afford to pay for the kind of care the dog now needs.

All of this could have been avoided in several ways. Getting the dogs fixed months ago. Taking the bitch in heat away from the three unfixed males. Actually caring for his dogs, instead of dumping them on a convenient relative.

There's more, but it's only marginally related and not incredibly relevant... so I'll end the story here. For now. =>_<=

[Aethian]

Those poor dogs...and most likely I bet all of them will be put down.

[Greenday]

If no humans were bit, I don't see why they would be put down.

But yea, you can't leave that many unfixed male dogs around an unfixed female dog in heat. Bad stuff is almost guaranteed to happen.

[AdminAssistant]

If it's a crowded shelter, and the animals are aggressive - even if it's just with other animals - then there is a chance they could be put down. It's too much of a risk for the shelter to place them in a home. It's sad, and avoidable, but that might actually be the kindest thing for the dogs right now.

[Nekojin]

Small update: A died from his injuries.

As far as the others go, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that they'll be put down sooner or later. Adult untrained pitbull mixed-breeds are both a dime-a-dozen, and highly unadoptable. Add in the injuries that are going to be expensive to fix... and putting them down is just the simplest, most practical solution.

I don't drink, but I'll be raising a virtual pint in their honor tonight. They were not bad dogs, they didn't deserve this.

[AdminAssistant]

Poor A. At least he's in a restful, peaceful place.

[Aethian]

Ditto, poor A. I wish he had a better end then to die in pain and most likely scared. He was the alpha and suddenly be made to be less then a throw off of the pack. Poor guy.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

I'm sorry for the dogs who had to suffer because of an irresponsible pet owner, and it's always the dogs who are punished or who suffer, never the owner. It makes me so angry that I need to step back from this thread and calm down.

I'll be raising a glass for the poor dogs as well tonight.