dog pack update

I called the county sheriff's department earlier this week just to confirm what I already knew, that there is no animal control in the county. My only option, they said, was to call WCSPOT (Wharton County Stray Pet Outreach Team). I didn't do that right away because the last time I called them about five chihuahuas, one with puppies, they wouldn't help out because they were at capacity. Fortunately, my sheriff deputy neighbor found homes for them all, or perhaps he got SPOT to help out after all. Anyway, I finally called them yesterday.

I hadn't seen the dogs since Monday (been raining), and haven't seen the mother for days before that, and I walked along the edge of the Wild Space looking for them and about halfway between my property and the road, I saw the male that's been getting in my pond and tearing things up and one puppy so I tossed a few firecrackers in their direction (they were easily 20 yards away from me). A car with two women pulled up on the road and yelled at me was I shooting those dogs? That pissed me off. What was it to her? No, I hollered back, I'm trying to scare them away with firecrackers, you want them, you get them. She turned and spoke to the driver who said something I could hear but not understand. I just shrugged and eventually they drove on down the road and out of sight. A few minutes later I saw them coming back in the direction they had come.

So I called SPOT and was describing the dogs and their location and she told me that they had picked up 6 puppies yesterday on Walter Rd. that sounded like the dogs I was talking about. Sure enough, they are those puppies so I told her they missed one. She said they would see what they could do to get the last puppy and the adults and might be calling me today about it. But not so far. I haven't seen the puppy today but I did see both adults out in my absentee neighbor's yard.

Anyway, the 6 puppies are at the local vet that works with SPOT getting evaluated and their shots and will be available for adoption. They do look healthy.

For those of you who may have thought that my attitude and response to the dogs was less than compassionate, let me just say that I have seen what a feral dog pack can do. When we first moved out here there were a couple of feral dogs in this same area. The female had two litters one after the other and she tried to move them into my absent neighbor's backyard and under the house which I went to great lengths to prevent them getting in there. Eventually the pack consisted of about 6 adults and another litter of puppies. They became bolder and more aggressive and I eventually had to rescue another neighbor's terrified and screaming goat from being killed that they had cornered and had already bitten several times. You can read that story here.

I'm glad that the puppies were caught and hope they get the last one and the adults as well. A much better solution to someone finally having enough and shooting them.