Midnight is skittish. If he even HEARS us, he takes off like a rocket. The only times we ever see him is when we get home or get up in the morning. When we get home, he's in the yard playing with Max and Cooper. It's been a real shock how well they've all gotten along. I imagined our dogs wouldn't allow another dog to come inside our yard because of how they react when our neighbors walk their dogs around our circle. Sometimes I find all 3 dogs in our two dog houses that are inside our dog pen (we keep the door open and they sleep/nap in there). Usually, Midnight has a house to himself and Max and Cooper cram in the other. Or, they sleep outside the houses all on top of one another.
As innocent as Midnight sounds, he's been causing us problems. He eats and drinks like a horse. We have a 50lb free feeder on our front porch and 50lbs of food usually lasts 2-3 weeks. We also have a 5gal oblong water pail on the porch, and I replace the water every couple days. With Midnight, the food lasts about a week and the water pail has been dry a few times. He also barks at our neighbor. Her mailbox is on our side of the road and when she comes to get her mail, Midnight barks at her aggressively as if to say, "Get out of OUR yard!!!" He chews up the ad paper that gets thrown out by our mailbox each Tuesday, and I have to pick up the mess that's all over our yard. Max and Cooper can't get to our mailbox because it's outside our underground pet fence, and that's been another problem: Midnight comes and goes as he pleases, and at least once, Max has left the yard following him. The only time our dogs ever leave our yard is when the fence isn't working. They're smart. They figure it out. But they've been enticed by Midnight to leave the protection of our yard.
Some people with underground pet fences say, "We haven't had our fence turned on in years and our dogs never go near the boundary." I assume these people don't have 2-3 year old Labs. Labs are considered one of the smartest dog breeds, ranked 7th at present. (http://www.petmedsonline.org/top-10-smartest-dogs-in-the-world.html ) I've seen different lists over the past few years and they appear to be quite subjective. Labs were ranked second just a few years ago, and I know they didn't suddenly get 5 spots dumber.
German Shepherds are considered the third smartest dog breed. It's been fun to watch our dogs interact with Midnight. They TRAINED HIM WHERE TO POOP! Every fall it takes me about 6 weeks to clear our yard of leaves. There are millions of the evil things. I dump part of them in the woods at the far corner of our property. That's where we trained Max and Cooper to go poop when they were puppies. They can be on the opposite end of the yard, and if the urge hits them, they take off for the leaf pile. Well, I've seen Midnight do the same thing, at times WITH our dogs, and at times completely ON HIS OWN! It's like Max said, "Now Midnight, don't go pooping in our yard. Kev gets pretty mad about, even if it was uh as-uh-dent. You gotta come down here to the woods."
To the title of this post, today was our last day with Midnight. We called Animal Control a few weeks ago and it took them 3 weeks to get a trap to us. Lots of strays in our county, and the officer told me they handle over 20,000 DOGS per year. More on that in a minute. On Monday, the officer came and set the trap OUTSIDE our yard so that our dogs can't get to it. I put food in the back of the trap, but it didn't work. We saw Midnight BY the trap on Tuesday morning and thought he was in it, but he'd moved it around and got the food to fall through the cage. He had dug all around the trap in his attempt to get the food. I tried again that day and yesterday. Last night I made a long trail of bread slices leading to the trap and into it all the way to the back. It worked. Kelley looked out before 7am this morning and said, "You caught Midnight." I got up and went out there to check on him. He was shaking and scared to death. I talked calmly to him and gave him a bunch of treats. This was the first time I'd ever been near him. He eventually settled, stopped shaking, and took the treats from my hand.
Even though we don't want him, it's a sad day. He was probably abandoned and/or abused by some idiot. Now if he just ran away, I understand. But he has no collar and won't come NEAR people, which leads me to believe he's got a reason to be scared of people. He's a beautiful dog, but even un-beautiful dogs deserve to be treated with dignity.
20,000 STRAY DOGS in our county each year??? How is that possible? Our county has about 500,000 residents. That means 1 out of 25 residents abandons a dog each year, or, some residents abandon a lot more than 1 each year. If a person can no longer keep a pet for whatever reason, there's a place that will gladly take it: the local Animal Control/Care Services or Animal Shelter.
The officer said that last year our county had to put down fewer than 10 dogs that went unadopted. (He wasn't counting diseased/injured dogs, just healthy dogs that nobody adopted). Agencies from OTHER STATES check our county's Animal Care website, adopt them online in masses, come with big vans to get them, and then take them to waiting families in their own states.
This morning as Midnight sat scared to death in that awful trap, I talked to him as if he could understand me: "Midnight, I'm very sorry we had to trap you, but it's for your own good. What you see as AWFUL will actually turn out to be your greatest blessing. Somebody is going to want you. Somebody is going to give you a great home. Somebody is going to love and care for you. You'll never have to sneak into a yard for food, water, or companionship again. You'll never have to run away when you see people again. I hope you'll give that person the chance to love you." He acted like he understood, because that's when he stopped shaking, calmed his breathing, and started to smile. Dogs DO smile. Any dummy can see the difference in an angry dog, a scared dog, a smiling dog, etc.
Here's a picture of Midnight. It's the only time I've been this close to him. I pray that God gives Midnight loving owners and a great life from this point. And I know two Yellow Labs that are really going to miss him.
Update: I just went home to check on him. The Animal Control Officer was there when I got there. He'd already loaded HER into the truck. I was right in my original guess - Midnight is a GIRL, and the officer said she's around 9 months old - probably too young to rendezvous with Max and Cooper, or else she's been spayed. The officer just so happens to own two black German Shepherds. He had already sent his wife a text of Midnight asking, "Do you want a third?" Even if they don't keep her, he said there's a list of people waiting for German Shepherds, so Midnight will have a home one way or the other after the 5-day waiting period (for owners to claim their pet).
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