She’s Young and With It

It would probably take me two days to fill you in on the whole Sherman custody issue. We (mostly Clint) talked to a lot of people this week, most of whom advised that we should have never engaged the woman in the first place. This is great advice in hindsight, but it was such a shocking thing to hear that we did not know what to do.

The animal shelter confirmed that we did everything correctly to locate his owner. She did not come forward and claim him despite the fact that his photo was on their website and in their “found” dog photos at the shelter for over two months. When Clint asked her why she did not check the shelter, she says that she called them but that she did not have internet to check online and no transportation to go to the shelter. We have provided for his care and proper ownership by registering him, vaccinating him, neutering and microchipping him.

She and Clint got into an argument when he told her that we were providing a good home for him and that we were not comfortable relinquishing Sherman. Remember, we still have no proof that he was her dog. We offered to meet with an independent mediator to resolve the issue, but she refused. She has now called a bunch of times. She sent a text message on Wednesday saying she made a report and she was told that she does not have “2 talk 2 nobody” to get her dog back. She called and left a voicemail last night that said we are avoiding her and that the police told her we have to give her the dog. She finished the message by advising that she was trying to do it the easy way but apparently we want to take it a little further.

We filed a police report for harassment. This has been a nightmare. Clint has turned the ringer off on his phone since every time she calls, it just stresses us out. She tends to call three or four times before leaving a message.

If she were a reasonable person who had not chained her dog and offered proof that he was her dog, we would be willing to work with her. However, she seems to just think she can threaten us and say he is her dog and we will hand him over. She never even said thank you for taking care of him or asked how he was doing. She acts like he was a possession rather than a companion.

We love that big goof. When we took him in, he was terrified of bare floors. He did not move for 12 to 24 hours. We thought something was wrong with him. Finally I had this idea to lay a path of rugs and towels to the door and sure enough, he got up and ran outside. The vet told us that it probably meant he had never been inside. He was not house trained when we took him in and he still has severe separation anxiety to this day. In fact, before this whole drama began, he had just learned to escape his crate.

This has all been such a horrible nightmare. This drama may beat the whole Super Alley Fun House issue, the bamboo issue, the drug-dealing-puppy-starving (thankfully, former) neighbor issue, and even the whole Clint losing his job issue. In fact, none of that even matters anymore when you can’t walk your dog in your neighborhood for fear that some woman is going to come beat you or shoot you and take your dog. We are giving the dogs lots of run time in the backyard and a few trips to the dog park for Callie and Sherman (sadly Neko can’t go to the dog park just yet).