Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Annabelle is so unbelievably grounded

She will never leave the house again unsupervised. She has a back yard, but I'm not so sure I'm gonna let her out there without a leash. She ran THROUGH the screen of the screened-in porch today in pursuit of the goddamn stray cats that, come to find out, the neighbor is feeding. I like cats. I like animals. You know that. But when the neighbor is feeding FIVE stray cats that taunt my dog and make her run THROUGH the screened-in porch, well, that's just no longer okay. I'm taking the selfish road on this one. I'm calling animal control. There's a leash law in Normal, even on cats FOR THIS VERY REASON. There are no less than seventeen stray cats in this neighborhood, five of whom are getting their regular meals next door. ARRRRGHHHHHH

So Annabelle was gone for MORE THAN TWO HOURS, the longest she's ever been gone. It was getting dark. She's black. She's fast. At the two-hour point, I was planning to cancel tomorrow's class and hole up in bed because my dog had died. I was crying, trying to continue calling her name, which isn't easy when you're blubbering. Julia came over to help look for her and, what do you know, Julia finds her on the way to my house and coaxes her into the car. She said Belly looked scared. She smelled awful. She got a bath and she's in bed. Never to leave the house again. We begin potty training tomorrow.

4 Comments:

At 4:20 PM, Blogger susansinclair said...

1. Bad girl!
2. Bad neighbor!
3. Consider adding some simple green wire fencing over the regular screening to add bulk and strength.
4. Maybe time for a refresher obedience course?
5. She *will* mellow as she gets older. Honest.

 
At 4:42 PM, Blogger aerobil said...

a "refresher" obedience course would only make sense, my dear, if she had actually learned anything in the first one. She flunked out of puppy school, remember? I'm installing a GPS in her head. That should do the trick.

 
At 6:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Now you know there are other materials to keep her in place. A strategic tether could help. . . just kidding. In all seriousness, though, the stray cat thing is an issue, but you should call the SPCA because they typically don't kill, etc. Just trying to be a cat advocate.

I am glad to hear that the belly is home, though. How scary for the two of you.

Jen

 
At 4:54 PM, Blogger senioritis said...

I'm soooo glad Belly is okay! And I'm so sorry for your horrible scare.
As a confirmed feeder of stray cats, I can perhaps (or not) speak on behalf of your neighbor. I'm betting that your neighbor can't even get her hands on those stray cats. We have one who lives in our barn (the Inestimable Fred) and 3-6 others who show up regularly to share his food, and we can get near none of them. If we could, we'd pop 'em in a carrier & hustle them either to the vet to be sanitized before they became our house cats, or to the shelter where they'd have much better lives than they do as strays. I sympathize with your frustration as Belly was on her own for two hours. On the rare occasions that our house cats get out, we have a collective heart attack until we can get them back in. But invoking the leash law is unlikely to do you a bit of good. Assholes abandon cats; cats become feral; and then cat lovers either stand back & watch 'em starve, or they feed them and hope to get close enough to help them. What I think you *could* do: participate in the effort to catch the cats and get them to a shelter. If you're lucky, it's a no-kill shelter. If not, then you need to start doing some fund-raising for it. But before you fix the broken screen or the local animal control problems, treat yourself to a glass of wine, candlelight, bubble bath, some good music. You got Belly back, you lucky girl! xxoo

 

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