Saturday, May 07, 2005

Last night as Charlie and I were walking home from Applebee’s, out of the corner of my eye, I see a big THING running full-force towards us. Running across the street of Dekalb Avenue, is a pit-bull… and let me mention that there was no owner in sight.

Most people would be in panic if they saw a pit-bull running towards them, but as a child I learned that dogs can smell fear. And believe me when I tell you, I don’t think I’ve ever been afraid of any animal. Of course, I’ve never been face to face with a wildcat…. but I swear I may be one of those people in the jungles of Africa saying “Here kitty-kitty.”

This pit-bull sighting is something you’d only see in New York. Maybe it’s because there is an abundance of these animals in Brooklyn, but I can’t see myself in Virginia Beach walking down the street and coming face to face with this kind of dog with no owner. As a matter of fact, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a pit-bull in my parent’s neighborhood in my entire life.

So there I am pulling out the cell phone calling someone to come pick up this poor lost dog that is running crazy on busy streets of Brooklyn. My first instinct is to call 911… in my eyes, this is an emergency! But Charlie gets me to call 311, which is the phone number New Yorkers call for “not-so-emergencies” emergency.

Please note that it’s 9:30 at night on a Friday.

A dispatcher answers and tells me that she can’t help me, and that animal control is closed for the weekend. So my options are either taking the animal to my apartment until Monday or bringing it to a shelter. So obviously, I couldn’t take the dog to my apartment… my cat would have probably gone into shock and fallen dead to the ground if she saw a big dog in her place of living. So the only REAL option is finding a shelter. But guess what? The shelter is closed.

And before I know it, after 15 minutes of keeping this dog’s attention, the dog is gone. Just as fast as he came into our sight, he’s gone just as fast. And this morning, I’m sitting here thinking of where he is, where his owners are, and hoping that that poor puppy is safe somewhere.

I know I can’t save them all, but I really wish I could.

No comments: