But this last Tuesday, there was some excitement here when Sharon took Angel for his morning walk. And that is what this post is about. But before I tell that tale, let me provide a little history refresher.
Angel adopted us on tax filing day, 2007. He was already about a year old, and had made a den for himself under our storage shed. It took us from that Tuesday until the next Saturday to coax him out from under the shed. He was very distrustful of people, and may have run away from his former home because of being abused. I guess we'll never know for sure. We could tell that he had no house training, but he learned quickly.
We suspect that when he was outside in our yard and off leash in those very early days with us, he wandered out into the woods, and maybe over to the neighbor's. Twice, when he came home with a smelly grayish grease on his fur, we threw him into the bathtub, and it soon broke him of getting into things like that. He hates to stand in water! When he learned where our property boundaries were, he never went beyond them again.
Angel did like other dogs, though, and made quick friends with two dogs of one of our customers. He loved to play whenever we were with them. But the neighbors next door acquired at least two German Shepherds and a beagle at some point, and their dogs were all over the neighborhood! One of the German Shepherds was shot by the sheriff's deputy that lived around the corner, because she witnessed it killing her cat! The beagle was often seen wandering down our road by itself, with absolutely no supervision. In fact, most of the time, the owner's weren't even home, and when they were, they had more important things to do than worry about training their dogs or keeping them fenced or chained!
One day, one of the German Shepherds wandered onto our property when Angel was out and loose, and he and Angel got into a real fight that we had to break up. In the process, Angel got a piece of the German Shepherd and made him bleed! After checking Angel and giving him a bath for the blood that was on him, we realized he didn't have a mark on him! The blood wasn't his! We did notice that he was very sore for awhile, and careful about how he moved.
Beyond the physical discomfort he experienced, we could tell that the experience traumatized him. He no longer wanted to make friends with ANY dog of any kind, and especially large brown ones! In his eyes, they had all broken his trust! Living pretty much secluded on our back street, he lacked the constant social interaction with other people and dogs, and we didn't leave that real estate behind until November of 2015, so it has taken a long time (nearly ten years) for him to become somewhat sociable again, and has made great progress in just these last two years.
Now, we feel like this latest incident has set him back in more years than he has left in this world! He's roughly 11 years old now! And as much as we have tried to protect him from such things by keeping him on a leash or inside, there's always going to be some other pet owner who has no clue about such things, nor do they seem to THINK about their actions or to care!
Leashes serve two purposes, (1) to prevent their dog from doing something that is not safe for them, and (2) to protect other people and their pets from having something done to them by other dogs. Too many people seem to think that dogs are just "there" to pet when its convenient for them, and to let them run wild and do anything they want to! They have no more real love for their pets than for a rock! If they did, they would do whatever they could to provide proper training for their pet, and to make sure that they were safe from other things, as well as to make sure they didn't do something dangerous or aggressive to anyone else!
A dog has the mentality of a two-year old child, and the habits of an autistic child. They both need the guidance of their "parents" to learn proper manners. It's incomprehensible to me that authorities investigating pet abuse situations still find homes full of urine and feces because the owners are too frigging stupid and lazy to even house train their pets or clean up after them for their own health reasons!
This isn't the first time that this dog (the size and color of a German Shepherd, but obviously a mongrel) has been in this park and started trouble. We found out after this incident, that he had been here last year and attacked another dog, with much more serious injuries to the other dog! At that point, I would have barred that dog from the park, but for whatever reasons, the managers let him in here again!
Every time we walk past their RV, the big dog hears us and sets up such a fuss that we have been afraid he would charge through their screen door and attack. The owners have very little control over the dog, nor have they made any attempt at proper training for it. All they do is yell at it! We have been told by other neighbors that the dog is usually friendly towards people, but hates other dogs. He has lost the chance to prove that with us!
Tuesday morning, as Sharon was walking the back loop by the water pump building, the dog and its owner suddenly appeared out from behind the building. Why were they even back there, when the owner obviously knows that that they have a vicious dog? Why not stay in plain sight, where anyone else can see the dog and find another way to go before they get too close? They obviously do not THINK about their actions!
Anyway, the dog charged toward Angel so fast that he broke free from his owner and charged after Angel, attempting to bite him at least three times, before the owner jumped on top of the dog to get him under control. Thankfully, the dog had a muzzle on that morning, and couldn't bite, but we HAVE seen him out and about without the muzzle! It's obvious that any dog that needs a muzzle in the first place, is not properly trained and can't be trusted! It doesn't take brains to figure that out!
Angel was not aggressive toward the dog, but was protecting Sharon by staying between the dog and Sharon. But when the guy jumped on top of his dog, he also caught Angel's leash under him, and Sharon couldn't even pull Angel away! Thankfully, we keep Angel's leash just loose enough that he can pull his head out of it in an emergency, and that's what he did... and then ran back to our RV as fast as he could... where he waited on the step to be let in.
There was another smaller dog with the large dog, and he followed Angel all the way back to our RV, because the owner also lost control of him in the process of controlling the larger dog! The little one isn't vicious, and was probably just as scared of the whole thing as Sharon was!
Sharon was screaming at the dog and its owner, and I could hear them from our RV. I wasn't dressed yet, but did so immediately when I heard the commotion, as did all the other neighbors at the back end of the park! She has written her own account of it on her blog. And because of this incident, we don't feel like we have full use of the park anymore, because whenever this neighbor is at home with their dogs, we are now forced (a choice, really, but for our own safety) to walk only down the main drive to the front of the park, in hot, bright sun, rather than down the nice shady street where it's cooler!
I'm also making this known to the dogs owners and the park owners as well as publicly on my blog, that if that dog or any other attacks me or my family, I will kill the dog immediately! I won't need a weapon! I have been attacked by large dogs before, and the last time, the owner pulled his German Shepherd off my arm by his collar while I had a tight hold on the dogs throat! Had he not been there and pulled him off, I would have killed the dog to protect myself!
I also informed the owners of this dog about the attack, and told the park managers, that I believe in the "chain of command". The owners know of the incident and have been warned, and I then notified the park office! If it happens again, to me or anyone else, I will call the police and animal control and they can come and pick up the dog's carcass and place the owner under arrest, as well as having the courts make him pay for any medical or other expenses necessary!
It's a shame that people assume that rules don't apply to them. The park's rules clearly state that no aggressive dogs are allowed, and yet they still bend the rules, rather than lose site rent. I have already videoed another owner with two large dogs that thought it was OK to let them run free in the grassy areas and not bother to pick up after them! I sent that video to the office, so there would be no disputing the evidence! Nothing more was said, but those dogs are not here anymore!
A couple weeks ago, we had another incident. A motorhome with two couples traveling together had two little yapping dogs that not one person out of the four would get off their lazy ignorant butts for, and tell/train the dogs to keep quiet! I was outside for awhile and stood there for over an hour watching the RV's owner puttering outside by his truck, as though he were totally deaf to the two dogs yapping constantly! Everyone within 200 feet could hear them!
Later on, we heard that this same owner had brought his pistol out and shot a large but defenseless box turtle by the fence between us and the horse farm! We were gone at the time, but heard about it later. At that point, someone DID call the police and they came out and put the guy in handcuffs in the back seat of the car! We found out later on that he was fined $325 for discharging his firearm on public property! And I hope they confiscated his pistol! Idiots like him don't deserve to own one!
Had the turtles not been recently removed from the endangered species list, he would have been fined $10,000 and possible imprisonment... all because he claimed that he was afraid the turtle might bite his dogs! Box turtles don't bite anything but plants! What a friggin' IDIOT! If he had his dogs on a leash, a situation like that should never have come up!
(from FloridaConcealedCarry statutes: in part... "any person who knowingly discharges a firearm in any public place"... or "on any property used primarily as the site of a dwelling"... or "zoned excusivley for residential use, commits a misdemeanor of the first degree...")
We did hear that someone took the turtle to a vet, and that it is expected to survive, but will need extensive surgery. That's all we know about it right now. That turtle has been around here for years, staying close to the pond at the horse farm next door. Box turtles are peaceful creatures! It didn't deserve this!
Needless to say, they were told to leave, right after he got out of jail! And good riddance to bad rubbish! People like that don't belong in RV parks with other sensible, respectful people! They shouldn't even be RVing , because there is nowhere I know of, including out in the desert, where that kind of behavior is tolerated! They will soon become an outcast wherever they go!
Rules are in place for a reason, and ANYONE who rents a site in any kind of park should respect the park's rules, whether they like it or not. If they don't like the rules, then they shouldn't rent from that park! I have no trouble calling 911 to report any kind of problem that requires authorities to deal with, and had I been home that day when the IDIOT shot the turtle, I would have been the first to pick up the phone!
In a way, I'm sorry that my last couple of posts have had to deal with the negative aspects of RVing and blogging, but I'm not sorry to make these kinds of things known. Too many sites and blogs make it appear that everything about RVing, traveling and blogging is all wine and roses. There are also bad things that have to be dealt with, and the more people that read truthful blogs, and know that other people aren't going to tolerate their BS, the less of it they will deal out... hopefully.
Of course, that's all fine in theory, but unfortunately, the low-lifes of the world, even those with money, are often uneducated and unsocial people who don't bother to read blogs or educate themselves about what is going on in their realm, and prefer to remain ignorant, and/or uncaring about what other people think! They are their own form of sociopath, and will continue to do what ever they want to do, regardless of what others think, because in their own minds, they are never wrong!
I don't want this blog to become a rant against trolls and other anti-social sociopaths, so I will leave it at this. All the good people understand. The others never will. All we can do is put them in jail where they (or their animals) can't hurt other good people.
For now, please enjoy what's left of Saint Patrick's Day!
Very nice post thank you for sharing
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