One month, one week and one day.

This post is dedicated to all the lost dogs. Everywhere.

Phoenix - September 2008

It has been exactly one month, one week and a day since my little Phoenix went missing. My friends and family are well aware of the stories, trials, fits of tears. It happens, regularly, I am beginning to understand, and that is why I have decided to write this post.

I have two dogs, and whilst the escape belongs in its entirety to my larger, sookier beast, Brindle, she managed to find her way home, after five days almost completely unscathed. This was a great relief, because as a dog owner there is something I am very attuned to, the responses of non-dog people to my dogs. And Brindle is quite capable of smashing large bones between her teeth. Moreover she looks it. If I were going to have trouble, if I was going to have complaints, fines etc, Brindle would be the cause. She incites fear. If I was going to find her,  I still ran the risk of loosing her forever. Thank fully she is currently outside reclining on one of my parents outdoor chairs, as is her want, much to my parents distaste.

Brindle will sit at the table, on a chair, while you eat, and display better manners than most people I know.

The little one didn’t bother me in that way. He is the sort of dog that pretty girls imagine carrying about in a little tote dressed in a pale blue cardigan and a heart tag on a sequined collar. Children immediately want to cuddle him as if he was a teddy bear, stuffed. What is hilarious to me, their owner, companion and carer, the one who knows them best of all, is that they are exactly opposite. It is Brindle, the crier, the sook ,the sucker for a cuddle who is nearly completely harmless. She wants to sit on the lounge all day, and I could easily get her to wear a cardigan and sequins, and she would love it. She loves anything that will mean her feet stay clean and dry. She is also the best behaved of my fur children. Phoenix is the terror, the naughty boy and won’t stand still let alone wear anything for longer than it takes for him to tare it to shreds.

They got out of my parent’s yard where we currently stay. It happens. We all believed it was secure. But they are thinking willful beings, and they find ways when they have cause, just like anything. It happens all the time to the best of animal owners.

Both my dogs are registered and micro-chipped. As is the law. Phoenix remains listed as ‘missing’ and all the proper authorities were notified of their disappearance and of Brindle’s return. As required by the law. I have walked and driven the suburb and more. I have door-knocked. I have posted fliers and letterbox-dropped. Everyday I go through a list of websites that daily upload photographs of the newly picked up, that people can list lost and found animals on, rescue shelters and council animal impound facilities. They are countless, numerous and it is my daily ritual that continues to break my heart, for far more than my own little man, who by his disposition and size, is probably the new pet of some other family.

Say good bye to sleeping Brindle...

I am dis-heartened and completely amazed at the bulk of animals who are lost, and never found again; the numbers who are surrendered to shelters etc BY THEIR OWNERS; the countless found and picked up and have apparently nowhere to go home to. The cruelty, the suffering is enormous. A society of PC do-gooders signing petitions to save whales, and yet the cruelty that happens to our domestic animals is almost too much to read about. They are social creatures, bound to an existence inside the confines of our civilization, and to most they are taken totally for granted. And so too are the laws that are designed to protect us, their owners, from our own suffering when they are lost to us.

I hope everyday that my assumption is correct and that my little Phoenix is being chastised for tearing at his pale blue cardigan by someone who is quickly falling in love with him. But I would like to tell that person they are technically in possession of stolen goods. Dogs, like my car, belong to the owner; you simply can not pick one up randomly off the street and keep it. Moreover Phoenix could have already, for countless reasons, been treated by several vets, who require the owner to sign a release to treat him. But unless the vet scans him for his registration details, they and the person who signs for his care are both committing acts for which I have recourse within the law. Vets are not required to scan animals they care for. The keeping of unregistered animals is illegal and failure to surrender a stray to council also results in a fine. My best hope is that Phoenix escapes again from his current carers, and then I have a chance of finding him.

I am not the only one. Not by a long, long shot. And as I have mentioned the problems are so much larger than the keeping of strays. Cruelty, illegal dog fighting, illegal breeding, tales of torture and death. The hopeless failure of a society responsible for their very existence. It has broken my brain entirely.

Both Phoenix and Brindle are adoptees. Brindle is an RSPCA puppy and Phoenix adopted directly from his former owner who could no longer keep him due to work commitments taking her overseas. Unfortunately, she purchased Phoenix from a pet store, and his size and a consequent medical issue seem almost doubtlessly caused by unregistered breeders, breeding bitches of his breed before the age of 12 months in order to get more litters into the pet stores for more money.

If you are thinking of getting a dog (and if you are not a dog person, and prefer cats, I can assure you all of the above is true for them as well, you need only click on the other page of any website, marked ‘Cats and Kittens’) please, please adopt one of the thousands and thousands that need a second chance like my Brindle did. I’ve added a list of some of my preferred websites and Organisations but you can contact your local council, each of which has a holding facility that you can adopt directly from.

RSCPA - House animals from pounds past their ‘due’ date and rescues cruelty cases.

Animal Welfare League- House animals from pounds past their ‘due’ date and rescues cruelty cases.

Companions for Life – Pet Rescue - House animals from pounds past their ‘due’ date and rescues cruelty cases.

Renbury Farm Shelter – Intake facility for Liverpool, Fairfield, Bankstown and Camden council areas.

Sydney Dogs & Cats Home - General intake and houses animals from pounds past their ‘due’ date and rescues cruelty cases.

Blacktown Animal Holding Facility – Pets Online - Blacktown City Council acts as a holding facility for other Councils in the Sydney region, these Councils being:

• Blacktown City Council (BCC)
• Auburn Council (AUB)
• City of Canada Bay Council (CAN)
• Holroyd City Council (HOL)
• The Municipality of Hunters Hill (HH)
• Lane Cove Council
• Parramatta City Council (PAR)
• The City of Ryde (RYD)
• The City of Sydney (SYD)

My wish for all pet owners:

1. Adopt a pet, they will love you more because you will stand in stark contrast to where they have been. My Brindle is evidence of that.
2. Do the right thing legally: register, microchip and de-sex your pet.
3. By all means pick up strays, and then immediately call your local council so they can get home as fast as possible or find new ones through adoption.
4. DO NOT hesitate to report any cruelty. Ever. If it doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t

Brindle & Phoenix November 2008