Somebody Stole My Dog!

Bt it’s ok, he’s back. Thisis the critter in question, a male neutered dalmatian, purebred (says the vet; no papers), 4 year old. I left for class at 12:30 and when I got back at 2 he was gone. His chain–it’s really an aircraft cable with snaps on both ends–was undamaged, just lying there in the yard. Somebody had unhooked him. He’s pretty friendly, so it wouln’t have been difficult. I frantically called the police, the pound, the vet, etc. The officer on patrol found him… on my block. In somebody’s fenced in back yard. In plain sight. He’s pretty distinctive, so he would have been hard to miss. I’d have found him myself in a half hour when I went in that direction on my own search. They’d had him about 2 hours, so they must have been waiting for me to leave the house to take him. But the joke’s on them, because in about 3 days he’d have died without his pills. (Really, that’s not funny.)

If you are restraining him by tying him to a tree (or such) in a yard that is accessible to the public, you have chosen a particularly poor way to do the job. He can be stolen, as you now know. He can be attacked by other dogs, or wild animals. He can get all fumbled up in the chain.

If you’re just going to be gone for a couple of hours, why can’t he stay inside in a crate?

I assume you filed a proper report and all? I want to know what the theives have to say for themselves.

I’ve had two dalmatians. “Have horizon will travel” was their creed. Are you sure he didn’t get off his lead and your neighbours found him and kept him safe?

ttiuwp

Yikes! Well, he is a cutie, I can understand why someone would want him.

Any chance he got loose on his own and someone put him in their backyard just to hold onto him for you?

Contrapuntal, he is an inside dog and could certainly stay inside in a crate. In fact, he could stay insid not in a crate. I just thought it was pretty out (at least moreso than usual) and he’d like to play for a couple hours. He goes out on the lead to pee and to play on pretty days, he doesn’t live outside. Everybody else, the guy who supposedly took hm has been known to harrass my dogs, and has stolen things from my property before. I suppose the dog maybe, possibly could have gotten loose by himself, and maybe… possibly… have gotten into the yard by himself… but really, what a co-inky-dink, don’t you think? And besides that, no neighbors had seen him running loose in the neighborhood beforehand, and there was no damage to the leash or snap. My other dog is attached to it right now. It is being investigated, this is all I know right now. Probably nothing will come of it since the dog wasn’t injured; the authorities don’t care much for animals around here.

I’m glad you got your dog (and a nice looking one at that) home safely; that must’ve been really frightening. It was lucky that you were able to get him back. Given your neighbourhood though it seems that you should consider the wisdom of leaving him outside alone in the future. On a personal note, I cannot imagine leaving my dog outside alone when I’m away from home, though I’ll also admit she’s a 15 pound, knee-high fluffy dog.

Thank you, Captain Obvious. For the record, this dog weighs 65 lbs and was tied up at the back door. Someone had to walk all the way down my driveway, in full view of the neighbors, and within 20 feet of the back door to unhook him. It was unlikely, but looks like not unlikely enough.

So, what’s the revenge going to be? Remember the prime directive: plausible deniability.

… Revenge? Next time I leave the house, I can accdentally leave a much bigger, meaner, and angrier dog outside. One that bites.

Oh, gee, my dog ate your face off? While you were trespassing on my property? With the intention of stealing the dog? Sucks for you, huh?

Well I know revenge can be sweet… but I have to say that dog looks about as mean and angry as a can of baked beans.

Yeah, and his name is Noodles, for God’s sake!

Headline:

“Man Attacked by Noodles”

Beat me to it. And if it had been raining:

“Man Attacked by Wet Noodles.”

BTW, what kind of meds does the Dalmatian have to take? If he’d be dead in 3 days w/o them, it must be something pretty dire. :frowning:

In general, I don’t recommend leaving any dog anywhere outside unless you’re present full-time. Too many evil, weird, or covetous people. The dog boards I frequent are full of “my dog was stolen from my yard” tales of woe.

I exaggerate, but only slightly. Dalmatians are prone to developing bladder stones, and Ghost has a pretty bad tendency towards them. His worst episode was when I had first got him from the city’s shelter, and had no idea what was wrong with him. I thought he had some sort of bladder infection, so I just made an appointment when it was convenient for me, not realizing it was an emergency. By the third day he couldn’t pee at all, and that afternoon he was so lethargic I had to help him get in the car. The vet said a few more hours and he’d have died-- the urine had nowhere to go but back up into his kidneys and infect his blood. He was at the vet for nearly a week, cost several hundred dollars, and came away with a 'script for allopurinol twice daily. We’ve tried reducing the dosage at various times, but within 2 or 3 days he is visibly stopped up again. As long as the stone is small, the allopurinol takes care of it, but if he were to go longer than that he’d be totally blocked again and need the vet to flush it out or worse, surgery. Sucks, pretty much.

ETA: I know Noodles looks pretty laid back there, but he can be downright ferocious. I haven’t had mail in a week because the mailman is afraid to come in my yard.

Gotcha. Yup, that’s a serious one.

Want to read a really fucked up story?

Seriously, what the FUCK is wrong with some people on this planet? What sort of mindset/derangement would take over a persons mind that they could possibly think that killing a doggie was in any way a cool thing to do?

I hope to hell that the culprit is certifiably insane, because only such a diagnosis would allow for the deed. Fuck.

:frowning:

Ditto. I think people like this ought to be locked up. Anyone who would do something like this to a helpless creature, especially someone’s pet who was loved, is certainly a danger to society, in my opinion.