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Past diary entries Doll's Diary Account by Doll Stanley, 8-16-2005 Dear Diary, It’s been another week of seeing just how much a single human being can do with limited time and resources. It’s simply amazing what one individual can accomplish with a little determination. This week I addressed a number of cruelty cases, and of course other business couldn’t be laid aside. This week was no different from others in that no action stood alone. As I hurried to meet the WLBT-TV crew for an interview regarding the abducted pit bull pups (see www.project-hope.net/whatmakes.html), Cindy’s role in the recovery of two of them, the arrest of a youth who confessed to the crime, and our reward for the recovery of the other 8 pups and info leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone else who might be involved, I was detoured and detained by a mother dog who was caught in the midst of rush hour traffic. I pulled the van on to an island, jumped out and directed traffic around her. A friendly vehicle bound in her direction aided in keeping her to the side of the road, until another concerned citizen began to chase her in the wrong direction. The frightened dog wound up in the narrow medium of I-55. It was amazing to watch her time traffic. The Highway Patrol and police had been called but refused to come, so we civilians were on our own. Now a line of traffic had stopped on the entrance of I-55 to pray, cheer and gasp as this savvy dog took a lane at a time waiting between speeding, and slowing cars until a cheer went up, and she was in the woods on the other side of the interstate. Poor creature: her life and health are uncertain, and her source of food remains a mystery, but her wisdom certainly met this challenge. The WBLT crew was patiently waiting and very supportive of my decision to help the dog to safety. It would madden most of us if we dwelt on the thousands of individual dogs that face death at nearly any moment of their day. I’m tired, it’s late, I have dog laundry to do, and cruelty reports to catch up on, but I have to tell you about the Skelton case. I responded to a report of neglect in Houlka (now New Houlka), Miss. Gay went with me. We found an impoverished family, proud to have just moved into a house they were purchasing (a horrible run down house, with tattered and worn furnishings). They had four dogs tied outside, three with no shelter. Two other dogs were inside. Clearly the couple was attached to and even loved their dogs. I told them what steps they could take to improve their care of the dogs, laid out the assistance that we were willing to provide, and asked the neighbor who had filed a complaint with the municipal court to give them time to comply before following up. We followed through, as did the concerned neighbor, but the Skelton’s complacency brought the continued neglect of their dogs to a head. Today, after checking on the pit bulls the court ordered returned under supervision, Debbie and I went over to the Skelton’s place. Two of their dogs had had pups, two of which they’d kept. One was nearly hairless, and the other had bite wounds all over her little back from being attacked by her mother. All of them were flea infested, and none of the changes I recommended for their betterment had been implemented. Long story short, we could either seize all of the dogs, or come to an agreement that the Skelton’s keep three of the dogs if we aided with their spay/neuter, gave them some Frontline to treat the fleas until the house and yard could be de-infested, and afforded the dogs heartworm testing. We decided to propose the latter, and it worked out well. We left with the two pups: a small, nearly hairless dog, and the larger dog who was vegetating at the end of a rope tied to a tree. Hopefully, all will work out for the best. I met with the Mayor, and the Board of Aldermen has scheduled me in to speak at the next town meeting. I will present options for animal control for a really small town with few resources, and ordinance options to address humane care and sanitation issues. Once again, we stretched our resources to the max, but the important thing is we managed to save four lives. On the way back, Debbie and I were still mulling over the disturbing stories Mr. Skelton had told us about the results of the many trials of pest control he had subjected his dogs to over the course of his life. I’m stunned that anyone would think to submerge pups in gasoline to kill fleas. That was the one experiment that even he admitted was a bad idea. Doll |
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