A huge dog no-no

Yesterday, Nellie and I decided to change up our walk and go down to a street we like to wander, but of late, rarely get to. Frankly, I'm so glad we made that decision because we came upon this:

Yes, that's a little dog, shivering in fear, tied to the gate of this fence. Here's the thing -- we knew the dog lives there. Or thought we knew that anyway. Since the leash was attached from the inside the gate, we were certain the dog belonged within and frankly were puzzled (read HORRIFIED), this dog was ALONE, outside the gate, and tied up with no human in sight. It was immediately clear that slipping in and out of the gate was easy peasy. There are four immediate things that are so very wrong with this:

1.  The dog could be stolen by any passerby. While that may seem like a life-saving thing to do, unfortunately, there are many bad actors who do not have the dog's well-being in mind and use them for dog fighting bait and other horrific acts.

2.  In our neighborhood, coyotes roam quite freely at all times of the day. We are regaled with coyote sightings and horrifying tales of coyote attacks on NextDoor almost daily. It ain't pretty.

3.  It would be all too easy for the poor baby to strangle or cut himself by getting caught by the collar or leash while going through the bars. What you can't see clearly in the picture is the chicken wire, which presumably is supposed to keep him in, has been torn, has sharp edges, and no longer covers the entire area. 

4.  Even if this was meant to be a short-term thing, there's no water bowl.

Naturally I stumped my way up to the front door and knocked. To add to all that is wrong with people, there was a container with dirty water, two turtles and lots of eggs. I shudder to think what they were doing there. But back to the doggie. Someone finally answered by third knock and I sweetly asked if the dog was theirs. "Oh yes, I meant to bring him in," was the reply. I'm sure you know how dangerous it is to leave your dog there (and proceeded down the list), and she nodded and went out to retrieve that poor pup. 

Lest you think that's the end of the story, no. Nellie and I will be going by daily to check on the pup and if we ever see anything untoward again, Animal Control will be involved. We went by this morning and all was well. Let's hope that was a one time event and they learned their lesson.