Reuben came into the room when I was still sleeping early yesterday morning and says, "we have a strange situation this morning." Apparently that dog barking that I was hearing wasn't a remnant of a dream, but a real dog on our front porch. A rabid, aggressive dog, to be precise.
When Reuben says that a dog is aggressive, I take it seriously because I consider him to be a dog-whisperer. He's an any-animal-whisperer, really, charming hamsters, squirrels, and most creatures known to man. He had already tried to call animal-control and the ASPCA but their offices weren't open for the day yet, so he suggested to me that we "call 9-9-9". "Do you mean 9-1-1"? "Oh yea". I learned that 9-9-9 is the emergency contact number in Malaysia. Good to know.
I am averse to loud, aggressive barking so I wasn't interesting in venturing toward the front door. Reuben had taken some pictures of this thing and I thought, oh, he's not so bad!
Don't let the picture deceive you, our camera was just exceptionally good at taking away the 'red eye' effects of his rabidness. And that's when I saw this:
The policeman showed up, and by that time the dog had wandered back to the street and into our neighbor's yard. The poor thing couldn't walk straight. If a dog could be highly intoxicated, this is what he acted like. Reuben started feeding it bread to keep it close until animal control came, which the policeman highly disapproved of.
Holy moly, I've never seen an animal snarl like this!
I went inside to let Reuben take care of this situation, and eventually animal control came and picked the dog up. He says that the police officer used his taser gun. Apparently the dog had been on the loose for a long time, and had been getting a lot of reports about it. Crime stoppers!
On a totally unrelated note but coincidently has to do with dogs, we decided to take the afternoon to enjoy the crisp fall air by biking the greenway and walking some dogs at the animal shelter.
I should have known that this is the perfect activity for Reuben, because it involves both cycling and dogs. Within 15 minutes of starting our walk with the dogs, Reuben had basically leash-trained one, and the other was no problem.
It was a perfect day for enjoying the fall colors at the greenway
And allowed me to engage in one of my most favorite activities: crunching leaves! It was the perfect time and the leaves were the perfect consistency to generate maximum 'crunch'.
I was randomly on thesaurus.com today and this is what caught my eye:
You're kidding me, there's actually a term for such a thing? Perfect. And yet not such a perfect word: susurrus.
Too bad I'll never be able to remember it, much less spell it.
