The Lair of the SlowFox

Yesterday afternoon, P and I set off with Mali for one of the usual walks around The Avenues. We'd barely set off, however, when Mali was accosted by another hound just by the Corner Shop. New dog was a smallish Staffordshire Bull Terrier, sporting a collar (with no tag) and half a lead (it looked like it'd been chewed through). Having spent a good deal of time walking Mali around here, I would think that I know a fair number of the local dogs, and recognise even more of them, but this one was new to me.

Somewhat optimistically, I initially tried to trudge on, pulling a reluctant Mali along with me, but this was hampered by two things: firstly, Mali firmly putting the anchors on, and not wanting to go anywhere, and New Dog attaching himself, limpet-like, to my spaniel/collie cross with a fervour approaching 'ardent'.

No matter, thought I: obviously the owner's in the corner-shop, they'll be out soon enough, and then we'll be able to walk onward. So we waited on the pavement, trying to make sure that un-tethered dog didn't throw himself under a passing car or anything.

After a while, I sent P into the shop^* to ask around if anyone had left their dog outside. No-one had. Hrmm.

By this time, the two dogs were pretty much inseparable, and trying to walk on in the hope that the newcomer would suddenly remember where he was and scamper off home was obviously a folorn hope. So I sent P back home^* to pick up a spare dog lead. On his return, we gave up on the notion of walking Mali, and headed back to Castle Fox, where I tied up New Dog in the shade with some water, and rang the dog-warden.

Getting in touch with the dog-warden was a bit of a faff: you ring the Council, listen to their 'we're closed' message from a silicon-based artificial intelligence, then continue hanging on the line, after which a real, carbon-based life-form eventually picks up. Said person takes down your details, and passes them on to the Dog Warden, who'll 'ring you back', response time-frame unspecified.

Well, it was probably a good half-hour before the Dog Warden rang back, to ask me the same questions that the initial call-handler had asked, and then promise to stop by Castle Fox 'within the hour'. In all this time, neither I nor P saw any sign of anyone looking for a dog, nor had any of the passers-by we asked seen any hound searchers themselves.

So P and I took it in turns to sit with each dog - Mali within the confines of Castle Fox, New Dog secured in the front yard, until the dog warden turned up a little later (and contractually within the allotted hour). Apparently it's going to cost £35 plus £6/day for the owner to collect their dog: the warden observed that it gets expensive quickly. However, when the dog doesn't have a tag, and isn't microchipped (the warden had a scanner, and we tried multiple passes all over the dog {those chips migrate} just in case), then the owner's not really leaving themselves too many options (Mali sports both: the tag's got my mobile number and my address).

I'm not really happy about how it played out, though: like I said, 'twas a pleasant enough dog, but not really 'my' kind of dog (not keen on Staffies, in general), and the way he and Mali were going at each other, housing him, even temporarily, within Castle Fox would have been asking for trouble. So I couldn't take him in. Equally, given how limpet-like his attachment to Mali was we couldn't, literally couldn't, walk on and assume that eventually the dog would recognise his surroundings and amble off home. It was a warm afternoon (poor thing was parched, judging by how much water he drank), so tying him up Somewhere Else would have been, I think, both irresponsible and cruel.

So I think I made the best choice from a set of sub-optimal options. Don't feel very good about it, though.

* life is so much easier when you have an 11 year old at your beck and call :D