Last Monday I was sitting under a tree at Manito Park knitting (while Raf was running). This little gull came right up to me and just kind of hung out near me. I thought he was so cute so I took a picture.
Right after I took this I heard a loud splash and noticed a dog had jumped into the duck pond! At first I thought it was kind of funny but then I was getting kind of concerned because it wouldn’t come to the person who was calling it and it looked like it was confused. It kept swimming around in circles and it appeared to not hear the person calling it’s name. I found out that the owner of the dog wasn’t even around and that the person who was trying to get it out of the pond was the neighbor, who already had two (leashed) dogs in tow. Eventually, she enlisted a random couple who was out for a walk to call for it while she got the owner of the dog.
So this other lady is calling it’s name and I can tell she is starting to kind of panic. I also am feeling kind of uneasy because at this point the dog had been in there for a long time. I decided to walk over to this lady and ask if we should call 911 (since I had my cell phone with me). She told me that the dog was deaf and was also epileptic! It was weird because she kept swiming toward something and then at a certain point would turn around and swim in the opposite direction. I could tell she was getting really tired because she was panting really hard. I was getting upset. I DID NOT want to watch a dog drown in the duck pond that day!
We finally decided to call 911 and they refered me to Spokanimal (Spokane’s humane society), who referred me to someone else and I ended up having to leave a message! This was no good! at this point the owner of the dog was there. He was 9. I’m sorry, but I’m not letting a 9 year old swim out in a gross duck pond to save a dog. Why did the owner send the kid? Did they not care about thier fucking dog?!?
Quite a few people were now gathered around and several of us called 911 and Spokanimal several more times. He FINALLY came! But the guy really wasn’t able to do much either. Nobody wanted to wade out into the toxic duck pond to save the dog. He threw a stick in the water close to shore and it actually worked. The dog instinctively grabbed it and since it was closer to shore it saw it’s owner, the boy, and swam to him. Yay! We got it out of the water.
It was strange because when the boy let go for a second to put on the leash the dog started right for the water again! but we grabbed it and held it back.
What a strange experience.
Moral of the story? Keep your fucking dog inside a fenced-in yard. And if you are taking it for a walk KEEP IT ON A LEASH. I hate dog owners who don’t take care of thier dogs.
