Lost Dogs
On our way to dinner last night at The Allen Wickers Pub last night, I spotted two lost dogs wandering down the southbound frontage road of 75 in Plano. This was between Parker and Park (see below). I wrote about it a bit from dinner on my Facebook page, but I wanted to blog about it and get it out there in case their owners were searching for them. I assume they had a home because both dogs, despite being a little dirty, seemed to be well-fed and were both wearing collars.
I’m not a dog-expert but I wanted to describe the two dogs we spotted:
The first dog appeared to be a collie of some sort. We think she was female but didn’t really examine her closely. She was brownish-red and her most distinguishing feature was that she had only one hind leg. For the purposes of this blog, I nicknamed her “Tripod”. Tripod was sweet and she came right up to me when called and sat with us.
The second dog, who I called “Butch” appeared to be some sort of Rottweiler mix. I’m not familiar with the breed, but I recognized some of the traits in Butch. Butch was wary, but extremely interested in remaining near to his pal. Butch wouldn’t get close enough to me for me to grab his collar. Butch didn’t seem aggressive at all, but he didn’t have much interest in us except for that we had his friend for a while. I didn’t have much of anything on me to help catch Butch and I didn’t want to risk scaring Butch back out onto the frontage road.
Ultimately, I thought it was the lesser of two evils to lead the dogs away from the frontage road rather than to split them up and only catch one of them. I ran some errands and did some last-minute Christmas shopping. I spent about an hour driving around the area to see if I could spot them again but I didn’t have any luck. Hopefully, this means they found their homes. I really, really, really hope so.
View Larger Map
If you live nearby and are missing your two dogs, this is where we spotted them, and we did our best to herd them away from the really busy traffic. The last we saw them, they were headed southbound behind Allen Wickers towards Park southbound on Premier Drive. If you want to talk, reach out to me: (Email: [email protected], Twitter: briancmoses) and I’ll give you my phone number.
Here’s a link to an ad I posted on CraigsList: Spotted: 2 Lost Dogs (3 legged Collie & Rottweiller-ish) (Plano - 75 Frontage road & Enterprise Dr)
Plano Animal Control
I understand that it’s Christmas and that the animal control department probably isn’t one of the best-funded units. I called right around 5PM and your phone system told me that you were closed. The person I spoke to was polite and tried the best that she could to help me, but when I asked for help to catch this other dog, I got absolutely no help back. When I asked if there was anything else that I could do, any other groups that I could contact I got absolutely no information back from you and that’s extremely frustrating.
You asked if I would be willing to keep them at my house until you guys were open again after Christmas (a reasonable request, which I would’ve considered) but offered me no help whatsoever when I said I couldn’t catch the other dog. And you were no help when I asked if there was anyone else who could lend a hand.
There’s nothing more frustrating or disappointing than to call someone for help and to get absolutely nothing back. For when you’re closed, how hard is it to make a list of contact information for other people/organizations who do rescue work? How about some tips on catching and handling a distrustful dog? It doesn’t seem like that much to ask, but apparently it was.
For Next Time
Today while out shopping, I built myself a little doggie rescue kit. I picked up a couple different sized leashes and collars, a squeaky toy, and some treats. Over the next week or so, I’m going to build a list of organizations in the area that I could call. We’ll keep that kit in our cars and that list on our phones. If you have any organizations or people in the Plano area to suggest, please use the comments section to provide any contact info. Thanks!