Consequences of doing stupid things....

Gulfcoastguy

I live in a town that has leash laws that are are supposed to apply to both dogs and cats. That's the law not HMO regulations. My dog is kept in a similar situation as the OP, a fenced backyard with a dog door into the house. Everyday I walk my dog on a leash a mile and a half carrying a bag in case of calls of nature(he would rather poop in his own yard). There is a quarter mile stretch that I call "Cat Alley" with cats roaming the streets, the driveway, the sidewalks, yards, and storm drain inlets. People may feed these animals but I see no collars with rabies vaccination tags and they are obviously unspayed. By the time an unspayed and un restrained female cat is a year old it's kittens are having kittens. They are the main cause of death of the local song bird population as well as of lizards. The two creatures who eat mosquitos. Both West Nile and Zika have been found in local mosquito populations. Last week I opened my shed door to get out my looftlighter. A cat ran out of my shed and missed my egg by inches. Lastly my younger sister was badly bitten on the leg by a cat whose owner would just turn it out to fend for itself when he went out of town. 

tarheelmatt

Sorry to hear pal. It was an honest mistake. I'm sure they know you're good people and didn't do that intentionally.  

nolaegghead

Gulfcoastguy said:

I live in a town that has leash laws that are are supposed to apply to both dogs and cats. That's the law not HMO regulations. My dog is kept in a similar situation as the OP, a fenced backyard with a dog door into the house. Everyday I walk my dog on a leash a mile and a half carrying a bag in case of calls of nature(he would rather poop in his own yard). There is a quarter mile stretch that I call "Cat Alley" with cats roaming the streets, the driveway, the sidewalks, yards, and storm drain inlets. People may feed these animals but I see no collars with rabies vaccination tags and they are obviously unspayed. By the time an unspayed and un restrained female cat is a year old it's kittens are having kittens. They are the main cause of death of the local song bird population as well as of lizards. The two creatures who eat mosquitos. Both West Nile and Zika have been found in local mosquito populations. Last week I opened my shed door to get out my looftlighter. A cat ran out of my shed and missed my egg by inches. Lastly my younger sister was badly bitten on the leg by a cat whose owner would just turn it out to fend for itself when he went out of town. 

Sounds like your area needs animal control.  Feral colonies are typically allowed in urban areas, animal control will catch them, vaccinate and clip the tip of one of their ears.

I've never heard the theory about cats or dogs contributing to the spread of mosquito-born disease, that's pretty interesting.

northGAcock

I would like to thank you all for your insights, support and opinions of what occurred. I spoke with the wife (cat owner) this morning and we hugged and were both sad about what happened. She stated that she fully understands the risk that come with having outside cats....this one was 14 years old.....and had had a good life. The saddest thing for her was that cat was always a fraidy cat of sorts....and the cats fears ended up manifesting in last evenings event. We will be fine as neighbors going forward as that is much stronger than our animals actions. It is just a sad set of events.

I still harbor some guilt for not closing the gate.....as this could have been avoided. We both understand this was an accident, and there are no winners here. I appreciate your tolerating my venting....you are all a great group of folks.

Love your animals.

nolaegghead

Cats can kill.  Pound for pound, they're super bad-ass, top-of-the-food-chain killers.  I would fear them.  Greatly. 

That said, outside they usually run away from you rather than attack, so, in the spirit of risk management, stay away from them, especially if you're allergic to them, because that's where they're most dangerous.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/explainer/2012/12/brett_nash_cat_electrocution_case_can_a_cat_kill_you.html

Photo Egg

northGAcock said:

I would like to thank you all for your insights, support and opinions of what occurred. I spoke with the wife (cat owner) this morning and we hugged and were both sad about what happened. She stated that she fully understands the risk that come with having outside cats....this one was 14 years old.....and had had a good life. The saddest thing for her was that cat was always a fraidy cat of sorts....and the cats fears ended up manifesting in last evenings event. We will be fine as neighbors going forward as that is much stronger than our animals actions. It is just a sad set of events.

I still harbor some guilt for not closing the gate.....as this could have been avoided. We both understand this was an accident, and there are no winners here. I appreciate your tolerating my venting....you are all a great group of folks.

Love your animals.

Again, sad, but I'm glad it was a friendly and understanding outcome. Both you and your neighbors bring out the true definition of what neighbors should be.

nolaegghead

northGAcock said:

I would like to thank you all for your insights, support and opinions of what occurred. I spoke with the wife (cat owner) this morning and we hugged and were both sad about what happened. She stated that she fully understands the risk that come with having outside cats....this one was 14 years old.....and had had a good life. The saddest thing for her was that cat was always a fraidy cat of sorts....and the cats fears ended up manifesting in last evenings event. We will be fine as neighbors going forward as that is much stronger than our animals actions. It is just a sad set of events.

I still harbor some guilt for not closing the gate.....as this could have been avoided. We both understand this was an accident, and there are no winners here. I appreciate your tolerating my venting....you are all a great group of folks.

Love your animals.

Sh!t happens.  Glad you have understanding neighbors. 

Cats that are not familiar with dogs, and that run rather than stand their ground or avoid them alltogether, are usually the ones most susceptible to dog attacks.  The brisket camp lawyers have 5 misfit dogs and two cats and I try to get them to interact so they all know that the animals are extended human family and not prey.  Our cats are dog and people smart, and we've been lucky they haven't been victims of people, dogs or cars (people haul ass down our 25 mph street).

I used to have one huge cat that would attack dogs that she thought were threatening to me.  It was unusual and embarrassing.  One person had a German Shepard that was off her leash and running up to me.  My cat charged her and viciously attacked her head.  The dog ran away.  Poor thing.   I'd come home from work and my dogs often had bloody snouts from her attacks.  That's pretty rare, but it can happen.  That cat wouldn't attack unless it felt I or she was threatened.

DoubleEgger

YukonRon said:

Not to be insensitive,  (and my apologies to all that I will offend) but, My Beautiful Wife has two cats. Two demons spawned from hell.
I do not hate cats per se, but nobody can ever say I am even remotely fond of these two cats, ("Richard III, and Hitler"). I begin everyday disappointed that they survived the previous evening.
Yet, I digress....

There would be $50.00 and a case of Titos delivered to your door.....
Just kidding. 
Or am I?

It was an accident brother. You are a great pet owner, a good neighbor and one heck of a guy.

I paid a grand at the vet and no kill shelter to get rid of my wife's two feline devils before she moved in. Best money I've ever spent.  

pab

@northGAcock, I feel your pain. We have had a cat dropped off at the end of our cul de sac several years ago that had kittens. Well one of those kittens has now had kittens. Last Friday morning, on letting out our 4 basset hounds, I heard barking that wasn't normal. I ran outside and found Charlie had one of the kittens and it didn't survive. I, like you, experienced a tremendous amount of guilt. As we live in the country my wife thinks the kitten must have been nabbed by a predator. I haven't the heart to tell her different. :(

fishlessman

nolaegghead said:

fishlessman said:

nolaegghead said:

@fishlessman No, sadly.  Still working on it!

this is probably a good time, the dog would be old enough to take to brisket camp, early socialization is everything

The socialization aspect is covered.  We have people over here daily, plus our neighborhood is one where everyone talks to each other. 

@henapple and a friend just left yesterday after staying here for 4 days.  Tony hates cats but he loves Jazz and Foxy.

i used to organize some really big parties and it can be good for a dog. used to run a big brothers sisters of lowell party spring and fall with about 150 kids in the fraternity house in college, did that yearly til my german shepard was about 5. extremely good with kids and these inner city kids were a little hard on him. he did blood drives with me on campus as well, its better than one on one visits. now new dogs go to work with me til they get to their first year, not really as good, was pretty cool when people i didnt know would walk up to the dog pretty much any where in the city and start talking to him, it was like thousands knew him enough to call out his name. even some of those no good "anti" professors on campus let me bring the dog to class. you can not over socialize a dog

Dobie

If dogs are socialized with cats there isn't a problem usually but that's not always possible. My cat is 20 years old and outlived 4 Dobermans without an incident. 
One things for sure, there's a lot more responsibility and liability with dog ownership vs cat. Some breeds have more prey drive than others. 
Sounds like the neighbor relationship is strong to overcome this, glad it didn't go south on you. 

DoubleEgger

It's gonna be hard to pawn Maddie off on someone else now that she has a criminal record. 

YukonRon

DoubleEgger said:

YukonRon said:

Not to be insensitive,  (and my apologies to all that I will offend) but, My Beautiful Wife has two cats. Two demons spawned from hell.
I do not hate cats per se, but nobody can ever say I am even remotely fond of these two cats, ("Richard III, and Hitler"). I begin everyday disappointed that they survived the previous evening.
Yet, I digress....

There would be $50.00 and a case of Titos delivered to your door.....
Just kidding. 
Or am I?

It was an accident brother. You are a great pet owner, a good neighbor and one heck of a guy.

I paid a grand at the vet and no kill shelter to get rid of my wife's two feline devils before she moved in. Best money I've ever spent.  

Love it. I wish I were so wise.

Edit: I was trying to get this done for a case of Tito's and $50.00. 
Thanks for repositioning the cost higher Michael.

nolaegghead

One of my dogs (a big collie) bit a cop's son who was teasing him in front of Warren's Corner (original and this year's Brisket Camp) during a Saint Patrick's day block party.  I had warned him the dog is psychotic about skateboards.  He didn't listen.

Anyway, that went about as well as you'd expect.  Dog was jailed for a couple weeks, got a ticket for no rabies tag which I got out of in a hearing because I had receipts and vials for the vaccinations that I regularly give myself (buy at farm supply store).  Thankfully they didn't sue me, it was just a tiny scratch, but they raised hell and called an ambulance.

Anecdotal story:  So that cop, a well known a-hole that was thrown out of the NOPD (and that's hard to do in the 90s) for excessive force, his family had a restaurant and they were all executed in a robbery years earlier in what was a race war.  This happened in the 70s I believe. 

Last part of anecdotal story:  The restaurant where his family was executed, I think 5 of them, is where we did brisket camp the last two years.  </end_weird_story>

Truth is stranger than fiction, especially nowadays.

Legume

Invite them to brisket camp?

evie1370

About 10 years ago we were out walking our two dogs, a Lab Mix and a Corgi. I happened to see a Great Dane across the street, giving us a look that scared the hell out of me. Needless to say he charged us, attacked my Corgi and put in big gash in my leg when I tried to defend my dog. Only the quick thinking of the dog's owner-who raced down the street and literally tackled the dog-saved the situation. The dog had escaped from the yard minutes ago, and they were out looking when they came upon us. The wife was crying, I was bleeding (not too bad) and we went home. They came by, said they were going to probably put the dog down-I asked them to reconsider. They paid the Corgi's vet bill-he even got a gift card at Petco.

They got her checked out by their trainer, who referred them for a medical screen. Turned out she had an overactive thyroid which can cause severe aggression. Medication took care of the issue-and she lived to a ripe old age free of any future incidents.

I am sharing to let you know you are not alone. I know our neighbor was besides herself over this. Have you considered maybe taking your dogs in for a medical checkup? Also, maybe some training may help? Just a suggestion based on my past experience.

nolaegghead

...another not-very-interesting piece of trivia on my dog bite story....  Jackie Clarkson was there, who was a city council woman at the time (back in the mid 90's).  She saw the whole thing and gave me her card and was very sympathetic that a kid who was warned continued teasing my dog until he nipped him.  I think she mitigated the situation to a certain degree, as she was very well known in local politics.

Her daughter you've all seen.  Patricia Clarkson:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Clarkson

DoubleEgger

YukonRon said:

DoubleEgger said:

YukonRon said:

Not to be insensitive,  (and my apologies to all that I will offend) but, My Beautiful Wife has two cats. Two demons spawned from hell.
I do not hate cats per se, but nobody can ever say I am even remotely fond of these two cats, ("Richard III, and Hitler"). I begin everyday disappointed that they survived the previous evening.
Yet, I digress....

There would be $50.00 and a case of Titos delivered to your door.....
Just kidding. 
Or am I?

It was an accident brother. You are a great pet owner, a good neighbor and one heck of a guy.

I paid a grand at the vet and no kill shelter to get rid of my wife's two feline devils before she moved in. Best money I've ever spent.  

Love it. I wish I were so wise.

Edit: I was trying to get this done for a case of Tito's and $50.00. 
Thanks for repositioning the cost higher Michael.

Her two quit using the litter box. Those devils would have been a deal breaker for me.

 You can get it done for a tall boy Bud and a pack of smokes if you look in the right places. 

nolaegghead

DoubleEgger said:

YukonRon said:

DoubleEgger said:

YukonRon said:

Not to be insensitive,  (and my apologies to all that I will offend) but, My Beautiful Wife has two cats. Two demons spawned from hell.
I do not hate cats per se, but nobody can ever say I am even remotely fond of these two cats, ("Richard III, and Hitler"). I begin everyday disappointed that they survived the previous evening.
Yet, I digress....

There would be $50.00 and a case of Titos delivered to your door.....
Just kidding. 
Or am I?

It was an accident brother. You are a great pet owner, a good neighbor and one heck of a guy.

I paid a grand at the vet and no kill shelter to get rid of my wife's two feline devils before she moved in. Best money I've ever spent.  

Love it. I wish I were so wise.

Edit: I was trying to get this done for a case of Tito's and $50.00. 
Thanks for repositioning the cost higher Michael.

You can get it done for a tall boy Bud and a pack of smokes if you look in the right places. 

...or free, apparently, if you throw them in Robin's back yard...    (I KID! I KID!)

fishlessman

DoubleEgger said:

YukonRon said:

DoubleEgger said:

YukonRon said:

Not to be insensitive,  (and my apologies to all that I will offend) but, My Beautiful Wife has two cats. Two demons spawned from hell.
I do not hate cats per se, but nobody can ever say I am even remotely fond of these two cats, ("Richard III, and Hitler"). I begin everyday disappointed that they survived the previous evening.
Yet, I digress....

There would be $50.00 and a case of Titos delivered to your door.....
Just kidding. 
Or am I?

It was an accident brother. You are a great pet owner, a good neighbor and one heck of a guy.

I paid a grand at the vet and no kill shelter to get rid of my wife's two feline devils before she moved in. Best money I've ever spent.  

Love it. I wish I were so wise.

Edit: I was trying to get this done for a case of Tito's and $50.00. 
Thanks for repositioning the cost higher Michael.

Her two quit using the litter box. Those devils would have been a deal breaker for me.

 You can get it done for a tall boy Bud and a pack of smokes if you look in the right places. 

this can be done with duck tape and a long car ride across town.... oh wait, we are talking about the cats

nolaegghead

nolaegghead

YukonRon

It has to look like an accident, or consequently what she will do to me will not be forgiven in any court, anywhere.
Just sayin'.

DoubleEgger

YukonRon said:

It has to look like an accident, or consequently what she will do to me will not be forgiven in any court, anywhere.
Just sayin'.

That's why it's best to pony up the cash at the no kill shelter. You don't have to live the lie. 

YukonRon

DoubleEgger said:

YukonRon said:

It has to look like an accident, or consequently what she will do to me will not be forgiven in any court, anywhere.
Just sayin'.

That's why it's best to pony up the cash at the no kill shelter. You don't have to live the lie. 

Worth it.

YEMTrey

@nolaegghead you mentioned earlier that brother Apple was at your residence over the last couple of days.  I assumed for safety purposes that he left the “glowing member” at home in Tennessee?!

GrateEggspectations

Really sorry to hear about this. My dog (who was less than obedient but in no way menacing) once got out of the yard when I stupidly left the gate open. I was panicked, as I didn't think he'd come back home. Luckily, he wandered right into my neighbour's back yard and suspecting something was amiss, they returned him to me. I have since purchased a self-closer such that I never again make that mistake.

Jupiter Jim

Robin so sorry for all involved, like you have said better days are ahead. Jim, Kay & EllieJ too

Fred19Flintstone

evie1370 said:

About 10 years ago we were out walking our two dogs, a Lab Mix and a Corgi. I happened to see a Great Dane across the street, giving us a look that scared the hell out of me. Needless to say he charged us, attacked my Corgi and put in big gash in my leg when I tried to defend my dog. Only the quick thinking of the dog's owner-who raced down the street and literally tackled the dog-saved the situation. The dog had escaped from the yard minutes ago, and they were out looking when they came upon us. The wife was crying, I was bleeding (not too bad) and we went home. They came by, said they were going to probably put the dog down-I asked them to reconsider. They paid the Corgi's vet bill-he even got a gift card at Petco.

They got her checked out by their trainer, who referred them for a medical screen. Turned out she had an overactive thyroid which can cause severe aggression. Medication took care of the issue-and she lived to a ripe old age free of any future incidents.

I am sharing to let you know you are not alone. I know our neighbor was besides herself over this. Have you considered maybe taking your dogs in for a medical checkup? Also, maybe some training may help? Just a suggestion based on my past experience.

You are scrappy, @evie1370.  I don't think that great dane would have lived to a ripe old age if that happened to most people.  When I was a paperboy, a Dobie on my route knocked me off my bike and was biting my head before the owner got him off me.  I escaped serious injury, but once was enough for me.

nolaegghead

@YEMTrey It appears so as no glowing was seen except from the stick he perpetually clenched between his lips.... and even it didn't glow all the time.

A more palatable stick for public consumption than previously seen...we were all very relieved.