This is my new town. It's new to me even though it's officially a hundred and thirty years old. So it's my new town. I shot this picture of it today from way off west in the desert looking east toward the town. That's Picket Post Mountain to your right and Apache Leap way back in the rear and if you squint real hard you can see the white roofs of the town just in front of Apache Leap.The reason for taking this picture that far away is because tonight I'm going to expose a nasty little secret of this new town of mine. And it's not especially a nice thing to tell folks about so that's why I'm showing the town at a distance, not close up and in love like I have been showing. Our town has an animal control officer. He's hired by the town apparently and doesn't have anything to do with the county. He does things his way. Which is, round up all the loose cats and dogs that bother the town. And it's a fact: this little town has way more barky dogs than it needs. I'm quite sure it has more than its share of cats too. But when this guy 'rounds up' the critters, according to the stories I've heard, he doesn't bother to take them to any shelter to be cared for, he disposes of them promptly. (That's right: you do the math.)
Now I got this information from a group of dedicated, horrified ladies who are working to get a proper animal shelter started here in town. Where dogs and cats can be spayed or neutered and then suitable families can be found for them. A much more humane solution than a quick dispatching of them. They are working their collective buns off to round up as many strays as they can and get them cared for with help from far more humane shelters 'down in the Valley'. They had their hands full last week when it rained hard all day and the animal control officer collected seventeen animals and even he found it too difficult to "off" them all so he called the ladies up and deposited all seventeen with them. (Yes, THOSE were cared for, carted off down to the Valley and hopefully homes can be found for them.)
But I had my own little scare today after we returned home from shooting this picture. Our beloved puppy, Chuy, (I must remember to include his picture on this blog soon, being's he's the Cutest Puppy In The World currently) was put into his outside pen under the deck to get used to being shut up in a pen when Mom and Dad aren't around. We hope to start Harley riding soon and Chuy hasn't learned to ride on the bike yet. So we found a nice shady spot in the dirt and set his pen enclosure up there. Bill was afraid Chuy might dig out from under it but I assured him Chuy would be much happier in the dirt rather than on the cement slab behind the house. Bill went about his chores. I starting cutting out fabric on the sunroom floor. Occasionally, we'd hear Chuy bark. But finally, after about an hour there was silence, so I figured he was sleeping.
Wrong. Chuy dug under his enclosure and came zipping up the back steps. Bill went out the back door and found the eager puppy waiting at the door for us. We let him in, I snatched him up and covered him with kisses. What a good puppy not to have run away! For even with his dog tags and micro-chip, if the Evil Dog Catcher had caught my puppy, would he have been dispatched summarily? Whew!
So we breathed some big sighs of relief and realized it was our Lucky Day after all. And we've moved Chuy's pen out from under the deck and it's now sitting on hard cold cement. But the puppy won't be digging out no more! As far as the Evil Dog Catcher and this town's Sinister Secret, well, I'll keep you posted. I know there'll be more to come!
