Friday, March 05, 2010

Dog People- WWYD?

This morning I was driving Lauren to school when I saw a guy run out in front of some cars. Luckily it was in a school zone (LAPD is ticket-crazy these days so I try to remember to especially slow down there!) so traffic wasn't moving that fast. Then I saw why he was running. He was chasing a yellow dog. I put on my flashers and the dog ran in front of my car, going much faster than the man, and on to the sidewalk. He turned right down a side street so I turned right and followed him. A silver car turned right behind me.

Another guy came running across that street and tried to catch the dog. The man in the silver car pulled over. "Is that your dog?", I asked. "No, I think he belongs to that guy back there. Do you have any food? I think we could get him." So now there were 4 of us running after the dog. While we were talking, yellow dog rounded the corner and into another intersection, so the silver car and I took off after him. He ran up a steep driveway so we both went up the driveway. He then ran down the driveway, leaving us to turn our cars around. He was about a mile away from the original spot by then. Still the chase continued.

As we were pursuing him, I remember that I did have some food-Lauren's pizza for her lunch. So I pulled alongside silver car guy and tossed it to him. Then I went home to get Lauren another slice of pizza and to grab a leash and collar. Because it occured to me, what would we have done with him if we did catch him? He was bare-necked and skittish. It was kind of foolish to even chase him in the first place. But we 4 strangers could not watch a dog almost get hit by a car and not try to protect him.

I hope the little guy is okay. I don't know if he is, when I drove around the area after I got the pizza, no sign of him. And no sign of any of the searchers, either. But it's funny how, life in the big city, people pass by each other and don't say hello but when an animal needs help, strangers band together. And then again, more life in the big city, we will never know how the story ends!

2 comments:

Brighter Schemata said...

Actually, I just searched all the dogs at the West LA Animal shelter to see who came in today and here she is! (Not "he" after all)
http://www.petharbor.com/detail.asp?searchtype=LOST&friends=1&samaritans=1&nosuccess=0&orderby=ID&rows=10&imght=120&imgres=thumb&view=sysadm.v_lact&bgcolor=white&text=blue&link=008000&alink=000000&vlink=FF6600&fontface=arial&fontsize=10&col_hdr_bg=ADD8E6&col_hdr_fg=white&col_bg=ADD8E6&col_fg=008000&SBG=ADD8E6&miles=200&shelterlist='LACT2'&atype=&where=type_DOG&ID=A1095544&LOCATION=LACT2

Brighter Schemata said...

If the link doesn't work, here:
http://tinyurl.com/ylp3fuu