I want to apologize for my behavior yesterday, but I need to speak out. I am sure by now, you can understand my level of frustration. Every year, around the same time, we get complaints then you get
called. We have never had any issues until we moved to this house and since we moved here it has been the same thing. We only moved from one end of the street to another… on the same street no less.
There’s only so much we can endure until our temperament will start rising. We were patient, we have been compliant, and calm each time. We showed no issues and always have done what was asked of us. I think that this is completely ridiculous that this keeps happening.
Since the last time you had come, we gave away Annie to another family member to prevent from animal control being called with complaints and was afraid of her being taken away. That is why I corrected you quickly when you called Sadie Annie’s name. We didn’t want anything to happen to Annie so we made the toughest decision to move her out of the house and to a family member who will ensure her
safety.
Annie was a rescue dog, pulled out of her litter early (about 2 weeks old). She was saved from a barn house and was covered in mange and was very ill. Despite her illness, I slept with her every night while
giving the medications the vet has given us to bring her back to good health. I had her sleep on me every night while she was sick and whimpering in pain and sadness. I didn’t want her to feel alone and wanted her to know I was there helping her every way. But since we have moved here, I had to make a hard and
sad decision to let her go. Which I thought was best in fear she might be taken away from our entire family permanently because of some nosy stupid neighbors. She is rambunctious. She’s like a permanent toddler. She loves being outside, especially in the snow. She would always let us know when she wanted
to come in and we couldn’t help that she would never come in and couldn’t get her inside the house, because she loved the outdoors. She loves to bark and make loud noises. She loves people and always
wanted to say hi. For a dog to not bark and be excited is like a mute person trying to communicate to someone who can’t comprehend the communication and wants attention. Are dogs just supposed to ONLY wag their tail when they want to say hi and communicate? Just because they don’t use words doesn’t mean they don’t talk. That’s why they bark. But somehow, it’s bad for dogs to bark, because people try to suppress their
barking all the time, but that is their voice. You don’t put a shock collar or try to suppress someone who is excited and likes to talk?! We can’t help she was excited! We hear dogs left out all the time outside and barking, well into the middle of the night, even sometimes past 2 am… but do they receive complaints
and calls? Do they receive threats or ultimatums from animal control or anyone else? The answer is NO! It repeats every night and every day, and we wonder why we are and are we being targeted. Why doe everyone else get to live peacefully and not harassed? Does that make sense?! Why are other dogs
allowed to be out all day or night, barking loudly?
Let me tell you about Sadie. We wanted to find a playmate for Annie. I found Sadie on Craigslist. The previous owner was a lovely woman. She was very kind and nice when we first met. She came from
Virginia to try out our house, to see if it was a good fit for Sadie because we already had animals and 5 children. Annie and Sadie got along wonderfully. The previous owner was so pleased she allowed us to keep Sadie. However, when she brought us and showed Sadie, she was wearing a choke collar with prongs in it faced towards her neck. With this great and shy dog, we wondered why this type of collar was necessary. As soon as she came to live with us, we took it off. It traumatized the children to see that
type of collar on her and thought it was cruel to have on her. She was and still is such a gentle dog. She was also always scared and frightened. The previous owner had explained to us that she has a fear of all males, young and old but couldn’t tell us why. She would walk around with her tail between her legs.
Every time she bumped into something, she got so afraid and ran away. I felt we saved this dog from something because of how her mannerisms were. It was sad to see her so afraid of even herself when
she does things. The children loved her. Annie loved her. For 3 years, she would only allow me to take her outside and bring her back in. She wouldn’t eat unless I fed her. She followed me everywhere. If I got up from our living room to move to the dinning room or any other place, she would get up and follow me. She would then wait to see what I was doing or get settled, then lay back down again wherever I was. We had a connection and bond. She felt close to me instantly. She felt love in the house. Slowly you would see her tail not hiding between her legs. She slowly allowed everyone else in the house to help her do things and love her. Now, she comes up to any male with no problem. She allows my husband to do things for her. She used to growl and act like she would attack any male who was near me or around the house. Now, she welcomes them and nudges them for pets and hugs. She has come a long way. She
is very obedient. She’s not a wild dog. She loves to lay outside in the sun and bask in it.
Sadie now, she is old. She is past her life expectancy. Picture this… If you were old, dying, in pain, slowly deteriorating, in hospice, have trouble walking because of old age, or sick, have health issues, etc.… (you know what I’m implying, I don’t have to go on) would we put you down?! NO! You know why?! Because that is called murder. We don’t put people out of their misery, or we would be in jail.
Now, before you told me this isn’t the same. How is it not the same? Is it because she is an animal? Is it because she is a dog? Is it because she walks on 4 legs and has fur? Is it because they don’t live as
long as humans? Is it because she is built differently? Is it because she doesn’t use words to talk? How is it different? Let’s ask a different side of questions. Does she breathe the same air as humans do? Does
she have feelings like we do? Does she hurt like we do? Does she have the same organs we do? Does she think? Does she see? Does she have a brain? Does she eat and sleep like we do? Well, maybe not
exactly like we do but you get the point. I am prolife. Why isn’t it considered murder when animals go through the same things we do and when nothing else can be done we put animals out of their misery and keep people alive if we can, even if there is nothing else that can be done? It’s murder no matter what the species is. The only difference I see is that animals can’t speak up and have a voice. Actually, no one has a voice. Animals can’t speak up if they want to live out their life how they want it, and people can’t kill themselves when they don’t want to wait till they just die from whatever is killing them. No one has a choice. Maybe they should have a choice. Why can’t animals, dogs, live out their life when no one gives people the choice to end their suffering while they’re waiting for some terminal disease to finally kill them?
I consider all my animals rescue animals. They have been rescued in some form to have come in our dysfunctional family. They are happy and love our kids. Sadie is old. My mom is 87 years old and lives alone with us caring for her. She is worse than Sadie, but you don’t see me putting my mother down. That would be killing someone and called murder. Illnesses and body dysfunctions come with old age, in anyone and anything. Nothing stays in shape or works the same over time. Why do you or anyone expect a dog or animal to stay the same healthy way, even in old age? Why do you expect us to put her out of her misery when people can’t have that option? She is happy. She wants to die in peace, just like people are made to do, to live out their life and not quit. She is a fighter and not a quitter. She is faithful and obedient. We don’t even close the gate when she goes out back. If she just needs to use the bathroom, we leave the gate open and wait outside at the front door. When she is done, she comes around on her own and we let her inside. If we notice she has not come back around in 5 minutes, we go check on her. A lot of times, especially nice days, she will stay outside and lay down. When that occurs, we close the gate and go inside. We check on her every 10 minutes. When she wants to come inside, she will be standing at the gate. We don’t want to force her inside, but soon we will be reported for having her inside too much (ridiculous). When we do check on her, we don’t just go outside and look for her at the gate. We call her and ask her if she wants to come inside. Her general reaction to us is that she will look up at us, then put her head down. I am shocked
that no one around us doesn’t hear the multiple times in a day when we try to get her inside and call her. She will get up and come to the gate when she is ready. When she does walk around, on her own,
she will see other animals out, but she doesn’t even run after them. She minds her business and either goes inside or go to inside the gate. There are a lot of times where she will be almost to the door and
change her mind and go to the backyard again. We don’t force her. She does what she wants. She wants to be in peace.
Now I must say, for someone to report a dog not being able to get up… first, why wouldn’t they first address their concern with us? If she’s having trouble getting up, shouldn’t we know so we could figure out why and help her? Also, if she couldn’t get up, how would she have been in the house when you arrived or even gone to the backyard? I certainly can’t lift her! She’s a Great Dane, way too heavy for a short Asian like me! I know for a fact, even the healthiest person has trouble getting up sometimes, especially from laying down for more than a few minutes because your body is relaxed and used to being laid down. I have trouble getting up. Sometimes my children have trouble getting up out of a comfy chair. Does that mean we alert the authorities? Should I do that if I have trouble getting up from laying down? The bigger question is why wouldn’t we be notified first if she needed help instead of just calling animal control? I will say this again, we are being
targeted. With all the animals around us, we find everyone is doing the same thing or maybe worse and not getting reported. We find louder dogs, dogs staying out for longer period of times. Our dog likes being outside and yesterday was a beautiful day outside. Why would she want to get up and come inside? Why wouldn’t she get so comfortable laying down? Do you have issues trying to get up when you’re completely comfortable? Would you want to get up?
It’s been every year that we’ve been here. We have had to send away one of our own to protect her. We live in fear of taking out our dog because we are afraid someone might complain to animal control about our dog when our dog is fine and happy and content. I don’t want to live in fear anymore and I don’t want to stay in silence anymore. We’ve done everything that was asked of us. We can’t control that our dog prefers to lay outside but will stand at the gate and bark if she wants to come inside. This is harassment and I’ve had enough of it. We don’t bother anyone; we keep to ourselves. We stay indoors because there are nosy people around. We want to be left alone and our
animals to be left alone and in peace. We are not terrible or neglecting people. We have come so far and done everything we can for all our animals, from beginning to present time. We are a dysfunctional family, but our animals are always loved and taken care of. They aren’t just animals to us. They are our family. Just because they are on 4 legs with fur doesn’t mean they don’t or shouldn’t have the same rights as us. They should have the same rights. Some people don’t deserve the rights they have and need less than animals because animals behave better.
I will say this. If someone wants to report us again, maybe they should have their information taken and be charged with harassment. This is completely absurd. You really need to think about what is going on. We aren’t the only ones around here with animals. We aren’t the only ones to keep our animals outside. A lot of people keep their animals outside without a choice. We are being targeted and harassed and want to be left alone. File harassment charges or you will be contributing to allowing these people to constantly harass us when we have done nothing wrong but love our animals to a
degree that we don’t consider them animals. We consider them equals and family. We don’t deserve this ongoing treatment.
Risi's Creation 