So it’s Saturday morning, around 6.30am and I’m preparing breakfast for my Son who sits patiently in his high chair; He’s at his most pleasant at this time of day. The suns rising, the coffees brewing and I’m getting the morning prep done, as Mrs Wife has a well earned sleep in with Mr Dog…he’ll be down shortly once he hears his bowl being filled. As I’m about to plate up my Sons chopped fruit and scrambled egg I see what initially strikes me as some kind of Husky esque dog on our front lawn. I then walk toward the open blind to take a closer look (I’m always blind twitching) and notice there’s a much smaller dog there also; Two companions pleasantly sniffing around on this lovely morning…what’s the worst that could happen…
As a Father to a dog and also a human, my initial thoughts were to take a 180 to see where the Owner was (less concerned with the risk of a ‘turd and bail’ situation, as has been witnessed in the past) but I couldn’t see anyone accompanying them and although a quiet road, I was concerned with the risk of something happening to one or both of them. They didn’t hang around for long and soon made their way up the street like two old friends just out and about enjoying the peaceful morning. Unable to leave my Son unattended to go outside and check their collars for the Owners cell number, I carried on with the morning routine but felt an obligation to do something.
Around 10-minutes later, my Son has very much woken up - he’s now vocal and slamming his alleged ‘leak-free’ cup on the floor (‘leak-free’ my a***!). At this point Mrs Wife appears like another ray of sunshine down the stairs. She has a way of spreading pleasantness in a room, greeting our Son, whose face turns to a beaming smile…all his teeth on show…this is very much the opposite of my room entrance and presence, which often turns sour very quickly… “Morning…is that coffee brewed…has he spilt his drink again…oooh look at the mess…ah don’t worry, I’ll empty the bin…AGAIN!!”(ruffles sons hair - this is my greeting - exits room).
I proceed to tell my Wife about the dog-pack and share my concerns at which point I’m interrupted by the sight of the pair coming back down the street “THERE THEY ARE!”
My Wife, without question leaps from her chair and runs outside after them. Within a minute she returns holding the little dog and requesting me to bring our dogs lead to handle the other larger one (our dog will loathe this but he’s currently preoccupied with his head buried in his breakfast). Mrs Wife disappears for a bit longer this time at which point I go onto the front step to get a better view of the street. Walking up the street about 100m away is Mrs Wife holding the little dog with the larger one just walking alongside (no lead necessary, as it turns out). It was like watching the dog whisperer appear, similar to that scene from Ace Venture when Ace appears with all the animals flocked around him.
We decided to try to expedite Mr Dogs morning toilet break in our garden so that the newbies could check-in without being barked at for imposing on foreign territory. Mr Dog likes his garden, it’s his domain…there are many gardens like it but this one is his. However, Mr Dog now aware somethings off is unable to perform and refuses to go in the garden until his Mum returns home with a full explanation of where she’s been and who with. I tell him he’ll regret this and he’ll have to hold it in if he doesn’t go now…he proceeds to play hardball…
At this time Mrs Wife arrives with our 2 friendly imposters and requests a cup of tea (for her) and some water and kibble (for the newbies). I oblige as I try to field Mr Dog and Mr Boy inside who are now starting to experience the polar opposites of the scheduled morning toilet break…the former is having to hold on while the latter has released fully and wants out of his chair and a freshen up - he will demand this is the very next item you address.
As I micromanage indoors, Mrs Wife is now ringing around to seek advice on what to do with the 2 (of course) collarless John Dogs. We call the City and they say they can collect but it’ll be at least 3-hours. We call the Vets but they’re not open yet. We’re actually supposed to be taking our son swimming this morning for the first time and wanted to get there early before it got busy but I can already see this window of opportunity going out of its own window. At this stage it’s getting onto 7.30am and I’m now under pressure from a regretful Mr Dog, so I decide to get the 2 indoors ready for a dog walk as her indoors manages the other 2 outdoors.
We go out (Mr Dog has his later than scheduled toilet break) and do the standard lap of the lake near our house. I don’t go out of 2nd gear on the walk as I know there won’t be a quick resolve and I’m already starting to get the feeling this situation will grow arms and legs as I preach to my father about it all.
We’re out for about an hour before returning to the now hopefully resolved situation and in surprise I see Mrs Wife watering the grass (still in pyjamas) and dog free. It’s not that I don’t like the other dogs…quite the contrary but as a parent you want to stay on schedule and this was throwing us off. We’d already decided to push the swimming back to the Sunday morning (although I already knew it wouldn’t happen this weekend). Mr Dog then seeing his Mum runs toward her for his fuss. He gets separation anxiety so likes to be with his Mum at all times, which is a behaviour exclusive to her and not to me, who is exclusively reserved for dry humping…
Although not overly concerned at this point, the cautious pair that me and Mrs Wife have become post-pandemic, she’d watered the front and back lawn and also lysoled the cr*p out of the car after chauffeuring the dogs to the vets, then proceeding to wash her jammys and have a shower. We were only marginally paranoid of nothing more than flees at this stage.
So you’re perhaps wondering how we go from this lighthearted account of a pleasant Saturday morning to the s*** show that followed, like the plot of a Shane Meadows film, which always start off quite jovial before turning into something more disturbing and dark by the end.
So about an hour after the duo were dropped off at the vets, the phone rings and more notably Mrs Wife’s phone rings, which is always concerning as whenever her phone rings it’s usually bad news…the Bank, the telecommunications people or a follow up to a complaint made (usually to the telecommunications people); The sound of my Wife on the phone actually makes me anxious, sitting there waiting for the proverbial bad news… ‘how much is this going to cost me?’ True to form it is of course bad news, as we were informed the larger of the 2 dogs had a high probability of having an illness called distemper. Now anyone whose unfamiliar with this, it’s basically an incurable viral disease dogs and other creatures can get, which affects several body systems including the gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts and the spinal cord and brain. Although understood to be rare it’s highly contagious but any responsible dog Owner will have their dog vaccinated against it with subsequent periodic boosters, as our dog is. It’s basically how you would get your child vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella, which is actually part of the same family although humans can’t catch distemper.
At this point our concern switches to our own dog. By doing a good deed have we put our own pup at risk? Of course they didn’t come into contact with each other but this was more to avoid a potential territorial scrap than catching some Victorian esque disease. Mr Dog is also vaccinated and recently had his annual boosters. We did contact the vets though to determine what to do and look out for. Apparently swelling of the eyes, fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, loss of appetite, lethargy, nose discharge and loss of focus…fortunately we’ve not observed any of these but Mr Dog was banned from the garden for a week for added measure. Mr Dog is not happy his ‘domain’ is off limits, which further results in him having to do his business at the front of the house in full view of the neighbours.
The plot began to thicken later on Saturday as the duo had now appeared on the City’s website with approximate details on their age and breed; Still it seemed nobody was looking for these 2.
I kept refreshing the page over the weekend and by Monday lunchtime the profiles had disappeared, which I assumed meant the Owner had surfaced and collected, although I did question if a dog suffering from distemper would actually be released back to their Owner with the added issue that one of the dogs had no microchip and the other that did was invalid. So in summary, they were roaming the streets, collarless, microchip-less and carrying a fatal disease with nobody looking for them. As a Dad (and a human) it pulls on your heart strings to wonder why anyone would have a dog if they couldn’t be bothered to care for them. It’s similar with children yet with a dog you actively go out and acquire them.
On the Tuesday the plot thickened again, as I returned home from the dog walk, Mrs Wife informed me the story had developed and we became aware that the larger pup had been euthanised. We assume that given the fatality of distemper, the dogs approximate age of 12 (actually 15) and with no Owner appearing to collect him from the heavily underfunded City dog hospital (what the cost of one Elon Musk day trip to Space or Day Rate of War could do for this place), a tough decision had been made.
Furthermore, since my Wife was known in the Facebook world as the finder of the pups, someone had reached out claiming to be friends with the Owner who had allegedly left the back door open, hence how they escaped. Then the Owner themselves reached out to say that they lived only 3 doors down from us - F***! In fairness, the Owner was very thankful of our efforts in taking the dogs in and doing our best to get them back to their Owners. They were shocked the older one had been euthanised so quickly (as we were) but we’re not yet aware of the details and probably never will be. Perhaps given the probability of finding the Owners of a collarless, microchipless and tagless dog (a legal City requirement, which must be worn at all times) with a highly contagious fatal disease and given the lack of funding to house lost dogs for an elongated period of time, there is a mandate to euthanise dogs? Sadly, I doubt we will ever know.
I think what saddens me the most about this is had the dogs had better Owners, the dogs would’ve been vaccinated, had their microchips and probably wouldn’t have escaped. Once they did though (and given they’re only 3 doors away) I’d have expected to have seen and heard people looking for them. If our dog had gone missing I’d be out there all day, shouting, going up and down the streets, knocking on doors, getting my mates round to help. I’d turn the City upside down looking for Mr Dog, as I would with my Son or anyone I care about. We’ve helped others before who have reported their dogs missing on Facebook and then driven around, checking back alleys and I’d like to think people would respond to us in the same manner if that was us.
Also, what would have happened if I hadn’t opened the blind and not seen the dogs on the lawn? Would they still be alive, suffering with distemper? It’s all a bit sliding doors but I do think the older dog is perhaps in peace now and hopefully this is the wake up call the Owner needs. Buy a collar, pay for the microchip and vaccinations and check the back door/gate is locked. If you can’t afford that or can’t be bothered, don’t have the dog. They’re there as part of your family and should be loved as such.
Mrs Wife was a true hero that day, she went outside without prompting and came back like the wonderful Mum she is and then suffered the pain of knowing she may have put her own loved one at risk. If only all Mums were this caring, the world would be a much better place and this story would have a nicer ending.
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