Around 8am, I went to let the dogs out, fortunately, I looked out before opening the screen door.
There was a small black bunny sitting in my yard. I get my boots on, and go out to see if I shoo it away so my dogs wouldn't try to kill it. AU probably would chase it but not hurt it, Jaya, however would probably kill it if she could.
The bunny did not 'shoo'. It let me walk right up to it.
I squatted down and reached out and with the tips of my fingers, stroked it on the top of it's head and it still didn't move, but when I stood up, it took 1 hop away from me. I thought "Good, he'll move now" and I stepped after him, hoping he would now, quickly 'go' with me behind him to encourage it. NOPE. One hop, a pause, 1 hop a pause, all the say down about 40 feet of fence line that had places big enough for him to escape through.
I gave up on the 'shooing' - went back into the house, got an old blanket and a box and went outside and threw the blanket over him, and put him in the box. I don't know if bunnies bite outside of a Monty Python movie...lol...but I didn't want to take any chances, thus the blanket.
I brought him inside, let the dogs out, then called a few friends of mine who have kids or nieces and nephews some of whom are in 4-H but no one is home.
So I called the animal shelter, they didn't have room and didn't want to deal with a bunny that could be feral, or semi-feral.
Last resort, my vet.
She said bring it in, she would find a home for it. I think the bunny was a highway 'drop off' -- was probably a pet and when the kids quit taking care of it the parents dumped it. Every year, I get a new cat or two in the neighborhood from people doing that.
AND then...
On my way to the vet, with the bunny. A half grown border collie came blasting out of the tall brush right in front of my car...I nailed the brakes hard...wincing and waiting for a thud. Nothing happened. I saw the dog had a collar on, but I couldn't do anything, since I had a bunny in the car and a 3 mile trip still to go to get to the vets.
On my return trip, sans bunny, coming down the road to my house... same dog rocketed onto the road from out of some tall shrubs and that time I Screamed and slammed on the brakes because it was even a closer call than the first time and I thought for sure the dog was going to be killed.
I got out of the car, the dog ran up to me, and I looked at it's collar..collars.
One was a SHOCK COLLAR
******Makes Me Furious******* Any dog can be trained without one. In my opinion they are used by lazy dog owners - there's never a reason to use pain and fear to train a dog. This has been proven over and over and over in the past 2 decades. ***For those of you here that do/have used them. PLEASE I Don't care to hear any of your side of it...it's not up for debate with me.
Also, on the tag on the regular collar.
On one side it says 'ButthoIe' -- and on the other a phone number.
I was close to home and decided to leave the dog on that 'side' road, since it could have been from one of the 3 houses that were not too far from that road, and I drove down the lane to my house but the dog followed.
I went into my home to call the number...(I don't own a cellphone). And while doing so, the dog tore up my screen door screen, wanting inside my home.
The number I called reached an elderly sounding man who said that he never lost a dog, that his dog a, black lab, was right next to him, and that the number I called from a cell phone he had some years ago but he no longer 'owned' that number...
So, I go out, put a leash on the dog, put her into my car, and take her to the animal shelter.
I told the shelter lady, to please pull the shock collar off and make sure there were no burns or ulcers from burns, as I didn't have a chance to do that. They put the dog in an isolation pen and took down information from me as to where I found her and the fact that inside of 30 minutes, I almost ran the dog over twice. The dog was also a bit on the thin side and kind of dirty...and had no clue as to how to walk on a leash. Another sign the owner's put little effort into any kind of real training.
She seemed very dog friendly and human friendly. I hope the owner never shows up...and she can be adopted out to someone who cares enough to give her the home she deserves.
I then got home and had to do screen door repair for the next 20 minutes. It' was almost 12:30 pm before I finally got breakfast.
Stormy
good self control and you helped two in need. you should feel really good for taking the effort that most people would not.
