Hi, it's Celia again!
Today I am letting my mom write the blog post, because yesterday she had some trouble here on the micro farm. I was at the stable with Molly, so mom had to handle it by herself. Good thing she can stay calm during an emergency! I'll let her tell you all about it.
Don't get me wrong. I love dogs. Celia has a pet sitting business, and when we watch dogs we treat them like they are our very own. And sometimes dogs wander onto our property, and I just shoo them away. That doesn't bother me. But I can't stand when loose dogs run around on our property and chase our animals (or me!).
One time a pit bull cornered me on my front porch, growling and barking at me every time I tried to go down the steps. I was so scared I called 911. The cop came and told me he recognized the dog, and they had received other complaints about it. He told me he would warn the owners. A couple of months later the dog returned and started chasing chickens, and tried to get into the rabbits' pen. I wasn't scared anymore. I was angry. A couple of well placed bb's to the dog's backside and he hasn't been back on our property since. (By the way, the law does allow property owners to shoot animals that threaten livestock.)
Yesterday, my son, John, came running into the house yelling about a dog chasing the goats. I went outside to see a dog chasing Brie, our most skittish goat. Her collar and lead had broken, so I knew she had pulled hard to get away from the dog. She ran to me when I came out of the house. The dog was still chasing her, but got distracted by a hen that ran by. The dog started chasing the hen, and I started chasing the dog, screaming as I went. My throat is still sore! The hen dove under a rose bush, which probably saved it's life, because the dog only managed to tear its tail feathers out. I reached the dog and was ready to grab it when another hen ran by. The dog got it's second wind, and chased that hen around. It didn't take me long to realize that I wasn't going to catch that dog, so I decided to stop running and call the dog. I started speaking kindly to it, and it approached me. As soon as it was in reach I grabbed it and dragged it by it's collar up to the goat yard, threw it in, and locked the gate. Now I had time to think, and check the animals. Brie was a mess. She was running around, bleating. But she didn't appear hurt. Her new collar and lead were broken. Babybel (the pregnant goat) had also broken her lead. Mali and the babies seemed fine. I decided to call the cops, because not only did I want to find the owner, but I wanted Celia to be compensated for the collar and leads. It was only about $50 worth of damage, but that's a lot to a twelve year old. Plus, I wanted there to be a police report in case it turned out the goats were seriously hurt.
The good thing is the Conestoga police are really a great bunch of guys. They are extremely helpful. So I filed my police report and asked the officer if it was illegal for me to hold the dog as a hostage until the owner paid for the damage. He said although it was illegal for me to keep the dog for ransom, he would hold it at the police station until the owner was found, and then tell the owner to pay me. In God's providence while we were talking, someone very slowly drove by my house, obviously looking for something. The cop went and talked to him, brought him back to claim his dog, and then told him to pay me for the damage! Which he did.
It didn't occur to me that it was probably stupid and dangerous to grab a strange dog by its collar and throw it in a goat yard. The dog could have been vicious, and I could have been seriously hurt. I'm grateful that he turned out to be a friendly dog that just liked to chase animals.
Thanks, Mom! I hope I am home the next time you have to call the cops. It's so exciting.
No comments:
Post a Comment