Stray Souls

Stray dogs seems to be the norm in rural North Carolina where I recently moved. I've been living in city suburbs for years, where it's rare to see a stray dog...so this is a bit of a culture shock for me. There were 7 stray dogs when I moved to the area. One was a momma dog and two puppies, but I only saw the puppies a couple of times and never again (who knows that happened to those pups). One thing I do know, if you leave the strays as strays...they'll multiply, die on the roadside and/or starve to death. So, I made it my goal to capture the five that are left before they multiply or get hit by a car. I figured they'd have some chance at adoption at the Humane Society, and worst case they'd have a painless death by euthanasia.


I managed to catch two that were semi-friendly black Border Collie mixes, one even had a collar. They looked like siblings. My guess, someone didn't bother to spay their female and these were the puppies they didn't find a home for....their solution, dump 'em. I tried several local All-Breed No-Kill rescues in my area, but they're all full. It's no wonder, since I think only a minority of pet owners bother to spay & neuter down here in Podunk, NC. At least these two females won't add to the stray population. If lucky enough to be adopted, they'll be spayed first.

I did contact Animal Control, and they said they'd had no luck catching the dogs in my neighborhood because someone would trip the traps, or put food outside the traps to prevent capture. I suppose the folks think they're helping the dogs, but they have no idea how slow & painful it would be for the dogs to starve to death. The AC officer said he believes these three dogs were most likely owned by the person who sold off the land to the developers, and when they moved recently they just cut the dogs loose.

There are three left...little black 'n rust Momma dog who's about the size of a beagle, a large hunting hound type dog and a brown Chow-mix lookin' dog with an undershot jaw (seriously ugly dog). All three are very thin, ribs and spine showing, too afraid to get too close. The Ugly Dude and Momma dog will come within 3-4 feet of me if I've put down food, but the Huntin' hound stays far away until I drive off. Huntin' dog was limping, but seems better now.

They're living in the new construction area of my neighborhood, and probably scrounging food from construction worker's trash. I've been tossing down dry dog food each morning to keep them from starving, and hoping I can get close enough to lasso one. I usually either see all three together, or not at all (though I see they eat the food each day). This time I only saw the Momma dog and the Huntin' hound, don't know where the Ugly Dude went. Time will tell...if he's alive, he'll be back at the feeding grounds eventually.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sad News ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wrote that post yesterday but hadn't published it just yet. This morning I went to feed the strays, and saw the same two...both jumped up with tails wagging when I pulled up to the feeding area. But, on my way to work, I found the third stray..Ugly Dude met the fate of most strays, I found him dead on the side of the road.