Yesterday, we were out trimming our shrubs. The teen that lived diagonally across the street from us walked next door to mow his neighbor's yard. While he was mowing, I heard someone yell, and the next thing I see is a small dog darting over to the lawnmower (push mower,) then take off trotting across the street into the far end of our yard. Thinking (because we heard someone yell about the dog) we'd soon see the owner come racing out of the house after their dog, we just watched. The teen mowing the yard kept on mowing. The dog trotted up to the next house, crossed a street in our neighborhood, walked up to the next house, and continued into the neighbor of that house's yard. The dog was a good 100 yards away...............and nothing. No one bothered to go after it. I thought, "well maybe it's a stray. Hey, I wonder if that's the dog in the LOST posters!"
We thought we were about to see a dog get run over by traffic on the main highway, I took off my gloves, and I headed up the street.
The kid mowing the yard stopped to wipe sweat off his face and just stared at me. I tried to yell, "do you know whose dog that is?" but he turned his back to me and kept mowing. The dog is now 50 yards from me - sniffing, trotting, and in no way wanting to head home. I bent over, clapped my hands, and made incredibly-annoying calls of "c'mere puppy-puppy! c'mon, buddy! c'mere puppy! here puppy puppy!" The little dog caught sight of me and came running down the hill. When it approached me, it was VERY wary. It would run up to me and then jump back. I held my hand out, talked softly, and it started to approach, then jumped backwards.
I noticed that while this dog had a highly decorative collar, it didn't have a single tag: Rabies? ID? Nothing. After a few minutes, I asked, "do you wanna cookie? wanna treat? c'mon! let's go!" I started to walk away, hoping it'd follow me (still no owners.) Instead, it started growling at me and did a "I'm a big dog" nasty bark at me. Eventually, it thought it was actually getting a treat and started to haul ass down the street and into its own yard. (At least it wasn't up near the highway, and surely the lawnmower kid will grab it.) Nope. He just watched me.
Next thing you know, the dog is heading over to his yard and running laps: trademark "you can't catch me!" game.
Eventually, out walks the owner and says, "there he is!" and the dog continues playing its game. Now that the female owner was outside calling to her dog, the lawnmower kid stopped and was trying to catch the dog NOW. Another owner calls the dog, and it goes running into the house. The lawnmower kid says something to the owner who turns and stares at me (me - now back in our yard.) I smile at her, she gives me a nasty "stink eye" look, and walks back in the house. Well excuuuuuuuse me!
I know that if either one of my dogs were runners and got loose, I would be freaking the "f" out! My ass would be running down the street, leash and treats in hand, trying to get my dog. Not these folks. Their mentality was, "aww, hell. Fluffy's out again. It's hot out. Eh - he'll come back if he wants to." What is wrong with people? The owner? The lawnmower kid? Why were WE the only responsible people trying to get this dog home/into safety? Why give me a nasty look because I was trying to catch your damn (mean little bastard) dog?
As we were finishing up our yard work, I could hear the dog screaming and barking from the house. It sounded like (and it probably was) the owners were beating the dog. For running out of the house? For running up the street? It's your own damn fault that you not only didn't take the time to train your dog, but it has no tags, and you never even bothered to go after it.
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