107) An Unusual Visitor

One day I was working in the garden and Jonny was busy in the garage when a passing car slammed on breaks as he tried to avoid a dog that had run out into the road. The frightened dog ran slap bang into our gate with all his force and the gate flew open letting the dog into our yard. Fortunately Muffin was in the house at the time so she did not see the intruder. I don’t think he was badly hurt just very scared. He ran into the corner of the yard and being trapped by the fence just tried to hide in the shrubs there. I closed the door so that Muffin could not get out and went to see if I could help the poor animal. When I got near him he growled at me and as there had been reports of rabid animals in the area I was not happy to take a chance. I went to phone the S.P.C.A. (Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) while Jonny and the man who had hit the dog kept an eye on him. I was told in no uncertain terms not to go near the dog, to keep my dog away from him and that they would be there as soon as possible. A little while later they phoned me back to tell me that there was some sort of emergency and if the dog was quiet and staying put would it be possible for us to keep our gates closed and our own dog indoors until they could get to us the next morning. They warned us not to go near him as rabid dogs often tried to hide away from people before they became aggressive and dangerous. I took a bowl of water and left it near the shrub that he was hiding in and we just left him there for the night. Early the next morning the S.P.C.A. inspectors arrived to collect our reluctant visitor. There was a man and a woman officer and after assessing the situation and being growled at they decided to dart the dog with a tranquillising dart. They told us that as the darts were very expensive they did not want to use them unnecessarily but they thought that it was required now. They fired the dart into him and said that it would take about an hour to be effective and that they would come back then. When they got back they expected the dog to be fast asleep but he was still wide-awake. They tried to coax him out first but although he had obviously come out and drunk some water during the night he was back in the corner and did not want to move. The woman inspector thought that he was not rabid but her male colleague was not so sure and said that they should bring there little van as close as possible to the dog so as to minimise the amount of time they would have to handle him. They backed the van as far back as they could and then got out their catching equipment, a rope loop on the end of a long pole so that they could catch him without the risk of being bitten. Getting the loop around his neck while he was in the bushes was impossible so the lady tried to tempt him out with some titbits that she had in her pocket. He must have been very hungry by now and put out his head far enough for the loop to be put round his neck. Then the fun started, he was a big dog, probably a ridgeback cross, and very strong. He did not want to go into that van and he fought with all his strength to get away. After a long fight the inspectors won but they had to break the rules and risk getting bitten by grabbing him with their hands and man handling into the back of the van. It seemed as if the tranquillizer had had no effect on him what so ever. I felt so sorry for him, he was hurt frightened and a very unhappy dog but as rabies is very dangerous disease and a very real threat in that part of the world there was nothing else the S.P.C.A. staff could do. We had to fill in some forms about where and how we had found the dog and they promised to tell us how things went. In a few days they rang to say that there had been no reports of a missing dog matching his description and no one had called in to claim him. Because three rabid dogs had been picked up in our area they could not take any chances and he would have to be put down. The rabies situation was putting a big strain on the S.P.C.A. finances and they did not have the money to keep stray animals for more than a few days or to do the test to find out if he really was rabid. As the test could only be done after the dog was dead there was there was not much point anyway.