Biting The Hand That Feeds You

I pulled in to the driveway today to find a pitt bull dog sitting in a pile of leaves on my front lawn. He was wearing a muzzle! When I got out of the car, he just laid there and stared at me. There was a look in his eye that made me nervous. And his lethargy seemed abnormal. He didn't even move when I walked past. I actually found myself hurrying at one point because I didn't know if he was capable of attacking me, even with a muzzle. When I got in the house, my son was just coming down the stairs, and I told him about the dog. He said, "Oh, I want to go see him!" I said, "NO! He is acting weird. Just leave him alone." He said, "He has a muzzle on, I"ll be fine." I said, "No, don't go near him!", but he went out the door anyway. I could hear him say, "Hello puppy". But then he said, "Okay, he is a little creepy, I'm not going near him." lol This dog was buried in the leaves, and acted almost like he was sick.

I went and looked up the phone number for Animal Control, and dialed the number. As the phone rang, I looked out my upstairs window at the dog. He just stared at me with that strange look. Just as the answering machine picked up, I saw a car drive up outside. A woman got out of her car and I said, "I wondered who he belonged to." She said, "He's not mine, but I wanted to check on him." She was contemplating taking off his muzzle, but I warned her he might bite. I told her I was calling Animal Control, and she told me she had already called, and that they weren't open today. So I went outside with her. She was sitting by the dog petting him, and he was acting very calm. Just then my "animal lover" neighbor drove up and came over too.

We wondered if he belonged to a recent move-in, so I went over and asked, but he wasn't their's. By the time I got back,the woman had taken off the muzzle! I had brought out some water, because I worried that maybe he had been running loose for several days, but because of the muzzle, wasn't able to eat or drink. But when she took off the muzzle, he didn't attempt to drink anything. He actually perked up with the muzzle off. She decided to take him to a local animal hospital. I don't know if they will accept him, but I know they can at least check for a micro-chip.

In some ways I'm glad she had the nerve to take off the muzzle, because I was worried about him getting water. But I would have NEVER taken it off myself! Because sometimes animals do bite the hand that feeds them.