NOT the dog in question
He had been barking all night.
I have trouble sleeping sometimes and this was one of those nights. It was the day after the big ice storm. Everything had been covered in a film of black ice. Walking anywhere on the Rising Ranch was next to impossible. A trip from the house to the garage was life threatening. A gymnast would have been envious of my moves as I got my feet above my head twice. Haven’t done that since kindergarten.
But this was the next day. I rise early. It could be the name. It could be that I have to be at work for 5am. I am the first guy there. I like to arrive a little early. I get up at 4am most days but day after ice storm days I get up at around 3:30.
I wasn’t asleep anyway. The dog had kept me up.
The ice was mostly gone but now it was raining. Hard. And it was cold. The dog seemed to be barking more frantically now. Dogs can communicate a lot with a bark. This one was saying very plainly, “Help!†It sounded close. Real close.
I grabbed a five cell flashlight. Cops call them emergency nightsticks. Walking was a nightmare. It’s uneven ground and was soaking wet and slippery. Mud tried to suck my boots off. I could see the dog on the other side of our fence thru the privacy slats.
Technically it was on the annoying neighbor’s property but it wasn’t his dog. Its eyes shone dull red in the flashlights beam. I had to walk to the end of the fence and back up again. Did I mention the cold hard rain? I got a look at the animal thru the rain from about five feet away. It was a big white dog, could have been an Airedale or a large standard poodle. It was stuck somehow. I got a little closer and it snapped and growled at me. This was above my pay grade.
Back at the house on with 911 they promised to “send†someone.
By the time I had to go no show. After an hour I checked in with the
Long-suffering wife and still no joy. This time the 911 call connected me to the State Police who took the info. And someone came for the dog.
He probably wouldn’t have made it much longer. It was just below freezing and he was in some distress.
Later on I got calls from the ASPCA and the dog warden. Did I report a lost dog? This was hours later. Glad it wasn’t my dog. Or me.
