Stray Dogs

Since we moved here five years ago there have been numerous stray dogs wandering the neighborhood. They were dropped off by people who didn’t care enough to keep their dog or to take the dog to a shelter.

It’s not just the poor and uneducated who drop dogs off in a field or strange neighborhood. I recently talked to someone who adopted a large dog. That dog’s owner, a middle-class, hard-working 30+ woman, was going to drop the dog off in a field because “he isn’t working out.”

My neighbor was shocked (it was her granddaughter) and took the dog in, even though she already has two dogs (one which was also a stray). She’s giving her granddaughter’s dog a good home. We have taken in six strays, kept three and found homes for the others. But few stray dogs are so fortunate.

Stray dogs don’t have much going for them. They are not used to finding food for themselves, and if it’s hot and dry it isn’t easy to find water. Many are too frightened to let someone catch them. We have successfully caught four, but there were others that wouldn’t let us get close to them, including a mother dog and her 3-4 month old pup.

Please, if you or someone you know is thinking about dropping a dog off somewhere, hoping it finds a good home, do the kind thing and take it to a dog rescue or to the animal shelter. Better to spend a few days at a shelter with food and water and care than being lost and frightened on the street, perhaps getting hit by a car or slowly starving to death.

I want to thank those of you who have taken in strays. You are the kind-hearted people who make this world a much better place.

By the way, that’s me in the picture with Trixie, one of the stray dogs we took in and found a home for. She’s now living in comfort in a home near the California coast.
[tags] stray dogs [/tags]