Poor Puppy & Sleepless Night

Our neighbors have a new, 6 ft high wooden fence. From our back steps, we can see into their yard a little bit. Yesterday we heard some yipping from their yard that we hadn’t heard before and so we peered over the fence and between the slats to try and see what kind of pup they’d gotten. It was a red nose pit bull, about 4 or 5 months old. Adorable.

Later on, I was vacuuming the front room and happened to look at the window just in time to notice a couple men walking on the sidewalk just outside our house kicking at the little pup. Although it was odd and they didn’t look like our neighbors, I didn’t think too much of it. The neighbors often have people staying with them and some people treat dogs pretty poorly around here. A few minutes later I glanced out the window again to see the pup sniffing around on our park strip. Since it seemed the men hadn’t taken the dog with them, I realized that the pup must’ve gotten out from under the neighbor’s fence. I didn’t want him to be picked on by any other passerby (kids kick dogs and throw stuff at them) or to run into the street, I went outside and called him.

He was only too happy to scamper over and with a puppy’s enthusiasm began to lick and wag. He was so delighted to see me. We went in our backyard and hung out while I decided what to do with him. I figured the people next door would come home eventually and so I put a note in their mailbox that we had their puppy.

Sadie (our dog) was very jealous of the pup—we started calling him Buster—but we spent a lovely afternoon together in the backyard. I gave him some water and he drank nearly 3 bowlfuls before he was satiated; it was a very warm day. When I went back in the house, I gave Buster a rawhide bone to keep him busy and chained him to our dog lead. He was perfectly content to be outside, gnawing on the bone.

Turns out the dog belongs to our neighbor’s daughter, who doesn’t live there. The pup is there because where she lives, she can’t have a dog. Uh huh. Brilliant. Since the place you live doesn’t allow dogs, it makes perfect sense that you’d go ahead and get one. She asked us if we knew anyone who wanted a puppy and since we aren’t in the market for another dog, we said no. She was on her way to school and so we kept Buster (Blue is his real name, although he doesn’t answer to it) until her mom came home since we didn’t want him to get out of their backyard again. We even took Buster on our nightly walk around the neighborhood and he was a natural on the leash; I’m embarrassed to say that he was better on the leash than our dog!

The daughter came to get her dog at dusk. She had gotten a collar for him and a lead and a little house. Then she tied up the dog in the backyard and left. Buster wound his lead around the porch so that he couldn’t get off and spent the rest of the night on the cold, concrete porch howling. It was heartbreaking. And tiring.

This morning was really hard for me because he saw me as I left for school and wagged and wagged, but then as I walked toward the garage to leave began to cry again. I know that this dog is not my problem, but I hate when people treat animals so poorly. Why do you have a dog if you a) have nowhere to keep him and b) don’t spend any time with him.
I wonder how long the howling will keep up. When I go home today, I think I’ll ring their doorbell and ask to take him on a walk. If they aren’t home, maybe I’ll jump the fence and unwind him from the porch so that he can reach his little house. Poor dog.

People suck.

*UPDATE*


The people aren't mean, just dumb. They don't even want an attack dog--they just can't keep a dog where they live, so they're leaving him at the mom's house (who is pissed that he's there, so I don't know why she doesn't tell her adult daughter to find somewhere else for the dog)

It's already a little better. When I got home this afternoon, he was untangled from the porch and is now able to roam around the yard a bit. They did put a house and a dish out there (hopefully it has some water in it).

I'll tell you what though, makes me appreciate my beautiful dog a lot more. In fact, I think I'll take her to the dog park right now!

I'm waiting to see how it plays out. Hopefully someone else will file a noise complaint. And if the pup howls all night tonight, I'll file a complaint tomorrow.