Day 3—Louisiana Dogs Need Love Too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA889lfwn3Y
Before leaving Arkansas we received a tip (we teasingly call it a bribe, because she gave DDB a donation too, so how could we turn her down!) from Emily Pennel and a request to check on a dog she has been concerned about. She tells us she's willing to foster the dog if we can get them to release him/her, as she's been worried about this particular dog for a long time. With a foster home in place, we're certainly willing to make the effort to get that dog off chains. Finding foster homes is always our greatest challenge, and often even if we can get the dog released, we have no place to put him/her. We found if we turned left instead of right on 65th street we leave the city limits—and the tethering limit—putting us just over the border where the difference is like night and day. On the other side of the city border the number of chained dogs grows to at least one in practically every yard. We stopped at the house with a senior chained chow in the yard. The home reeked of cat urine and was difficult to approach but I could only see two cats through the window in the front door. There also appeared to be a bowl of water inside as well as a full bucket of water outside for the Chow. The Chow was extremely timid and wouldn't come near us. I knocked repeatedly on all doors of the home and on the door of a trailer behind the home, but no-one answered. Tammy and I left a note explaining that we had a 'chow rescue' willing to foster the dog if they were interested to please call, educational information and treats for the dog. It was the best we could do.
As there was no interstate heading due south, we instead had to take a more rural route on which we knew we'd see many chained and penned dogs as we left the state. We had a good three hour drive before we reached the Louisiana border, though, and so did not have time to stop and interact with anyone along the way. We did however add to our total count of chained and penned dogs as we went and counted another 74 before we reached Louisiana! As we went through a small town near the border, we stared longingly at a movie theatre and talked about how nice it would be to just take ourselves to a movie and forget about everything for awhile. But we knew that was not to be on our agenda for the next 10 days at least. We stopped for a sandwich in a small town and the staff at the counter never heard of anyone not wanting meat on a sandwich before. They said there was this one lady once who didn't want bread. I could hear them in the back making fun of us but I can't complain because they let us pilfer from the salad bar to fill up our "meatless" sandwich.
Back on the road again the most prevailing pattern I noticed was how far away dog houses are kept from the actual caretaker's homes. In order to greet your dog in the morning you'd have to wake up bright and early, slip into your mud shoes and trek across the yard just to say "good day". It's no wonder this is a rarity in a chained dog's life. Back at home we have a morning ritual with our dogs, one which I am missing while on the road. My husband and I lie in the bed as still as possible and then one of us whispers a word and as soon as the word leaves our mouths we are jumped and smothered in kisses and happy tail wags. (This usually results in an "Oomph" sound as our St. Bernard lands in the middle of my husband's stomach.) This is the best part of the day, although maybe the most painful, for both the dogs and us. I can't imagine not wanting to see my best friend's faces first thing every morning. I also noticed that wherever we go if we find one chained dog we find 10. It's as if one person sets the standards for the others to chain. Tammy said it's the human's pack mentality to follow what other's do.
We pulled off into a town in Louisiana and came across a Basset hound breeder who also sells yard ornaments. The sign read, "AKC Registered Basset Hound Puppies—Yard Ornaments" as if they were selling dogs as lawn ornaments. Isn't that one of DDB's slogans about chained dogs, "Dude, I'm a dog not a lawn ornament"? I went to talk to the breeder to ask how selective she is when selling pups, I was hoping I would find out she checked out the homes first like many responsible breeders, but the lady of the house wasn't in and I spoke to a gentleman who only said, "If you bought one of these puppies you'd want to take care of it." Wishful thinking isn't it? But how many times do we find purebreds living on the end of chains and the caretakers proudly telling us they spent $1000 on the dog!
Once again we had the choice of turning right or left in this town and the coin toss took us right. We saw a quaint little home with a manicured lawn but around back there was the sweetest pup on a chain. Baby's owner had considered putting up a small fence, a pen actually, but decided against it and left her on a chain instead. We fed her and gave her fresh water while we were there. Tammy brushed the clumps of dead fur off of her. She was the sweetest thing and it broke Tammy's heart to have to leave her. Once again we left another adorable dog with the promise of a fence, some treats and hopefully a caretaker with a more positive viewpoint of how to treat such a nice little dog.
A few blocks later we spied a Rottie mix and a little German Shepherd pup chained. When Tammy spoke to the woman about bringing her dogs inside, the caretaker became defensive and said, "Look at them, they are dogs, the need to be outside. Is it a crime to leave my dog out on a chain?" I thought there was going to be a confrontation so I intervened and tried to bring the tone of the conversation down a notch. If I were a chained dog I would want Tammy Grimes on my side, but since I was the one who would have to call 911 if Tammy were shot I decided I needed to give my best "good cop" performance. The woman was very frustrating and when we mentioned there was no water in either of the dogs bowls she said they liked to play in it. I went back to the car and brought a jug of water and she said, "I'll put it in, but I don't think they will drink it cause they aren't thirs..." but before she could finish the dog was slurping up the water faster than she could pour it; the other chained pup was equally as thirsty.
In both Arkansas and Louisiana we found many chained dogs without a collar, just the chains wrapped and padlocked around their necks. Snow was one of those dogs and she was so fearful that she darted away when approached. Snow's guardians seemed to gloat that she was mean and would bite, but she took a treat gently from my hand. That little girl was just frightened to death! We talked her caretaker into removing the chain and putting a collar on her that we gave him. We came across Snow when Tammy spied a Chow puppy in a cage on the same 'lawn', dripping wet. William told us had cut an embedded collar and chain out of his neck and stuck him in the little cage and hosed him down. The man said he was going to purchase a harness so we went and purchased one for him. We just knew we had to get that baby out of that wet and feces filled cage! When we came back from the store with the harness, toys, and treats, William took the poor thing out of the crate and put him back on the tether. The sweet little baby was so happy to be out of the cage that the tether seemed like heaven to him! I went to put antibiotic ointment on Cinder's neck when I found the open wound. My hand sunk into the flesh and the open sore was bigger then my outstretched hand. I started panicking and chanting, "Tammy...Tammy....Tammy. This isn't working, it isn't working..." She was taking a picture of the other chained dog with the chain wrapped around her neck and told me to "Hold on a second!" But I was not in any mood for patience! When she saw what I saw she agreed that the dog needed vetting immediately. I looked up the nearest vet on the GPS and called; they had time to look at him. We didn't show graphic photos in the video, but if you looked under that pup's neck you wouldn't believe it. Since William often works out of town, we were extremely worried about this dog. We asked him if he'd be willing to give him up to chow rescue so they could take care of his neck, but he was not willing. We would have somehow squeezed him in our car that second and driven back to Emily's with him if we could have!
The vet was a super nice guy, and we're sure has seen his share of this kind of thing in his small town. Cinder will be staying overnight at the vet's; we asked the vet to give extra TLC to the pup and help clean it up as much as possible. We called Animal Control and tried to reach the local Humane Society. DDB paid for the vetting, shots (the dog had never had shots before), and antibiotics, both external and internal. Emily's donation, while it didn't help the chow she intended it to, almost covered the vetting for the poor little chow we met only hours later. The universe works in mysterious ways! We offered to pay for neutering and begged William to have it done while Cinder was under, but he wouldn't hear of it. So we did the best we could for poor little Cinder and had to leave the rest in the hands of the local authorities. Once again, walking away proved to be most difficult, and even though we know we could not have done a thing any better than we did, it still seems to not be enough.
This family had one more small dog that was allowed in the house, but Cinder and Snow, they were too big for the house we were told. I told them my Saint Bernard lived in the house and Tammy said her Akita lives inside as well. In the end, the man did say that it was possible he may give up his dog's to us when he leaves for a job on a fishing barge in New Orleans. He asked for our number, which was on the brochure and fencing application, but we gave it to him again just to make sure he had it. Was it divine intervention that led us to Cinder or is the suffering even worse than we imagined? I believe it's a little of both.
So far, in three days and three states, we've logged 152 chained dogs at a glance and already stumbling upon two embedded chain cases later....we face another tomorrow, day 4 of our trip as we will head for Mississippi. I wonder what surprises await us there.
Diary of Dawn—Day 4, Mississippi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5jHqt2YGe4
The rain plummets so hard it hurts as the winds accelerate to 106 mph. A little black dog cowers inside of her leaking box, the wind hollers and whistles through the cracks. Her two puppies huddle against her. Little black dog is grateful for their company, yet fears for them more than herself. Outside she can hear the hound dog wailing in the wind. He is chained to his house, an old plastic crate that should be used for travel, not as shelter. The chained white dog living on the other side of hound dog is petrified, she hates storms even mild ones and this storm is proving to be anything but tame. Outside black dog's house she sees a tree uprooted, it falls close enough to rock the ground. Behind her white dog has been pulled from the ground, chain and all and is tumbling with the tempest like Toto in the Wizard of Oz. Where white dog lands, no one will ever know.
When the storm lifts the people come out of the house to assess the damage. No one checks on the dogs at first, but then someone thinks about the little puppies and goes to see if they are alright. All is well with the pups, black dog and hound dog though inside their little hearts are still pounding, but white dog is gone. Her doghouse still stands, but she and her chain have disappeared. The people think this is peculiar. In another day they will call the Animal Control Officer to see if their dog resurfaced on someones rooftop, it has been known to happen. Not this time though, white dog wasn't so fortunate, her fear of storms was affirmed and now she has become forever a part of one.
While this story is from my imagination, there's a very real chance it happened just like this. At least two tornadoes ripped through parts of Mississippi including Vicksburg, Bovina, Jackson and Morton. Chained dogs left tethered in 106 mph winds surprised their caretakers when residents came out of hiding and found their dogs gone. Some doghouses remained minus their inhabitants.
Tammy and I spent the day tracking down this story. We spoke with ambulance service workers, power company employees, police and the sheriff's office. At the Sheriff's Office, Animal Control Services was contacted to confirm that outside dogs were missing in the aftermath of the tornadoes.
Our fact finding proved that an outside dog is indeed left exposed to the elements: cold, heat, snow, ice, rain, and natural disasters including tornadoes. Any of these can prove fatal for an unattended pet. As a result from searching for proof, we spent more time investigating then actually talking to chained dog owners.
The day did begin with a confrontation at a residence with 3 chained shepherds on the property. A woman, with her hair pulled back in a bun and wearing a purple tank top with matching shorts came out as I was untangling a charming black and tan Shepherd hidden behind the trailer. The caretaker had her hand on her hip and attitude in her step as she approached me full of sass saying, "If you come here lookin' for trouble you done found it!" Tammy was laughing in the background thinking, "Let's see how Dawn is going to talk herself out of this one." I did manage to talk my way around it, but I do wonder what's going to happen when I meet up with someone who shoots first and talks later.
Another early morning ahead as the Dognamic Duo detours from the path of least resistance to the road less traveled. Thank you for joining us. Please keep watching and reading and spreading the word! We're at 192 dogs logged and growing...with 40 more added today. Already 152 ahead of goal schedule...sad but true.
Dawn Ashby, DDB Public Liaison
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