Totally captivated in 2007 by the live camera feed of the Hornby Island nesting Bald Eagles in B.C., I was drawn into birding and have never looked back. Thus begins my account of what I'm fortunate enough to discover each day and perhaps capture with my camera.



Unless otherwise stated, all images were taken by and are the property of Janice Melendez

Species Counts:

2014 Final Year List: 255; 2015 Year List a/o June 5, 2015: 235; Life List: 327

Friday, June 11, 2010

Hounds of the Baskervilles Update



So I'm stalking a Common Loon on the lake late-morning, and while walking by a cottage, I'm called over by the owners, who are life-long friends of the family, just having arrived up from the city. In chatting with Chuck, he asks me: "Oh, by the way, do you know who the white dog out there sleeping under the tree belongs to?" I look out to see not one, but TWO dogs, 'twas the HOUNDS, totally exhausted from their wild night in the woods:



I explained to Chuck what we had all endured overnight with the Hounds of Baskervilles, and these dogs had crashed and burned so much that when he and I went over to look at them, they couldn't even lift their heads....

I called the local Animal Control gang, and in their usual efficient manner arrived five hours later, only after a second phone call from me where I casually made mention of a fox family living nearby, as well as the R word (R= rabies, a dead fox last year tested positive for rabies, but thank goodness it was for the  "good" kind of rabies, whatever the hell that is, rabies is still rabies, right??!!)


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When these guys arrived,  they feared the dogs had been poisoned as they were so disoriented, but I told them about their Wild Night. One dog was eventually coaxed up and was able to barely walk to the van, whereas the other one had to be carried out on a stretcher, with yours truly holding on to a pole with the wire around its neck. Yeah, right, how effective would I have been to keep the dog under control if it got antsy, me with my flipflops on, puleease.

But we made it, both dogs' collars had owner info on them, and in fact the Animal Control fellows "knew of this guy". Great, didn't that make me feel better, their original plan was to take the Hounds to a vet but now that they knew who the owner was, by law they had to return these poor dogs to him, about six kilometres away from here. So stay tuned on this, I'm about to stalk this fellow in the next few days to see if the dogs have been properly cared for, ssssh.

In the meantime, I await the onset of poison ivy, as apparently the dogs were lying in a patch of it, as was I doing my good deed, in my flipflops. But as Ann can attest to, I'm fairly diligent about this, so after hosing myself down with anti-bacterial soap, I'm hopeful that perhaps I'll be spared???

In the meantime, I'm now looking forward to a quiet night of slumber for a change!



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3 comments:

Ann Brokelman said...

Oh Janice that is sooooooooooooo sad. I hope he is taking care of them poor things. I just love hound dogs but this is not good. Ann

How is the feet now. I hope you avoided it after your lessons to me on what not to doooooooooooooooo..

Unknown said...

Drama at the Lake. Equally disturbing when one wonders what's going on. Do be careful tho if you're stalking as stalkees who maltreat animals could be nasty pieces of work. Take your own hounds for protection. Keep all your fans posted. We're breathless with anticipation now......

Alex said...

Think you should rename this 'Janice's Nature Blog'! What a story - hope the dogs are okay after their adventures and that their owner takes better care of them from now on.