Oh, bother. So what should have been a little secret is all over the neighborhood now. A person whose name I can never recall stopped us in town with a “There goes Deadeye [D]!” [facepalm]
Also I got the story wrong in one particularly horrid particular: The dogs weren’t attacking a small calf, they were attacking – and indeed killed – a large dog, one of their own pack.
The dogs have now been identified, and as I feared they belong(ed) to an unpleasant guy off to the west of us. As the story spreads, it turns out he has been letting his dogs run wild for quite some time though they only recently worked their way into our territory. He has now lost four dogs to gunfire, since this is the second such incident in the past couple of weeks, and one to fratricide. Nice.
Trouble is, after L told the whole damned neighborhood about the shooting she got a call from the guy who owned the dogs – I have no idea why he called her – saying he was missing three dogs and had she seen them around? This guy lives miles away over rough country as the crow flies. His dogs have worked up quite a territory for themselves and this is far from the only unpleasant encounter though it has only recently gone to gunfire. That got L frantically calling neighbors asking them to keep the no-longer-secret to themselves in hope of staving off the blood feud. So now I’m hearing all these stories about this dog pack which is apparently not new, just new to us. Or it was – it’s down five dogs.
Oy. This could just fade away as such things sometimes do. Or, just as likely, it could turn into bigtime drama.
You know how they say three people can keep a secret if? Yeah.
Sometimes, trying to keep things secret merely backfire. When we had to shoot all those feral dogs, we first posted a notice at the little country store announcing exactly what we planned, why, and advised the neighbors to keep their dogs at home. I think it worked, because all the dogs we shot were obviously living rough and none had a collar. Also, nobody complained and other neighbors with livestock were complimentary.
That was So. Calif. 45 years ago, of course. Can only imagine the horror we’d face there if that were today.
Look’s like it may be time to dust off the old 1911 for a carry gun or start packing your Makarov as a backup. If this guy is as “unpleasant” as you say I think it would be wise to over gun it for a while. I also wouldn’t be surprised if he decides to get Johnny Law involved.
Eric, I’ve had the same thought about the 1911. While technically I’m not involved in any of this it would only take a phone call to get me in D&L’s yard with an AK and a bag’o’mags – I don’t know this other guy from Adam but everybody in my neighborhood knows I’m in their camp. While I consider it much more likely D&L would call the cops than the dogs’ owner would, there are too many unknowns.
This is the sort of thing where notions of property rights can get skewed way out of proportion. I keep Little Bear carefully leashed at all times because I know him, he’s a mischievous predator and under the wrong circumstances he would behave like the worst of these dogs. Though he’s never done it away from home, he can also act aggressively around people if they frighten him. If he traipsed three miles away and got shot for messing with other people, I can only hope they’d do me the courtesy of calling me to collect the body – unlike these other dogs, LB has a collar and a tag with contact info. But I could hardly fault the people who shot him, when it’s my fault for letting him off the reservation.
But there’s no reason to assume this other guy would take that attitude. He has made threats before, when other people complained about his dogs.
Joel, It’s the “threats” part that give’s me pause and a case of the uneasy’s which is why I give my humble suggestion to gun up and keep your ear to the ground, listen to what your further out neighbors are saying and be ready for trouble. You never know what this guy is into, could be a cooker or a mule for one. A petty criminal or an alter boy, although chances are he’s just a garden variety asshole, I’d watch my back and my kindly old neighbors too if I were in your shoes.
You know that being so tenuously related to thesis precisely why you will end up in the deepest part of the middle of this…..right?
Just out of idle curiosity; these dogs were not by chance Rottweilers, right? I ask because you and Ian are not the only people I know in that area.
I didn’t see them, Buck, but I don’t think so.
The third “S” is critical to operational security . . .