Supervise outside visits
By Bruce Felps
A weekend e-mail message from Lakewood Pet Watch — which, wowza, has a redesigned Web site — brought disturbing, but semi-regular, word of a cat who is no more, may he or she rest in peace.
The message pertained to an incident near the intersection of Cambria Boulevard and Lakeshore Drive, where the cat, asleep on its human’s front porch, became the victim of a three-dog pack. The cat’s human witnessed the grisly event after hearing the ruckus, fought off the dogs with a baseball bat, but was too late to save the cat.
No description of the dogs accompanied the message, but the moral of this story is clear: Please do not let pets outside, particularly at night, without your supervision.
Yes, yes, yes, they’ve been out a thousand times before and they’ve always been OK, but it only takes one.
Danger to pets lurks on all sides, and just a couple of days ago, I saw a three-dog group trot across my front yard and turn up a side street, northbound along Delmar Avenue. I called, clapped, whistled, and otherwise tried to draw their attention and presence to me but to no avail.
Two looked to be German shepherd-mixes and one looked rather chow-like, but none of them was exactly pedigreed. I called 311, but the report fell way down the priority list because the dogs posed no imminent threat, at least not to me.
Be careful out there.
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Pingback on Jun 11th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
[...] this week, I posted a sad item about a sleeping cat attacked and killed on its front porch by a pack of three [...]
June 7, 2010 at 4:11 pm
I’ve begged people to keep their cats contained either inside or in a large pen outside. “Cat people” seem to think a cat has to roam. Not true. I’ve talked to many cat owners and certainly many professionals including Texas A & M, where they have a cat rescue program. They are over-whelmed with stray cats that they are catching (by the 100s) to have spayed, neutered, etc. but unfortunately some are not able to be adopted. Because of the staggering numbers, they have to let them roam. The stadium there is where people dump their unwanted cats and dogs. The director told me Operation Kindness
Please, please, if you have a cat, keep it contained. They can be a nuisance also to your neighbors. And there are many more instances of cats being abused than are reported.
I always kept my animals contained, even the cats. Friends of mine in another state have 10 cats and have a large pen in the backyard nearly taking up the entire yard. The kitties love it. Climbing posts are in it and in good weather the cats stay in it. They love the grass too. Then in bad weather, they have a large pen in the heated basement. A few roam in the house.
I’m certainly in favor of keeping all animals safe.
June 11, 2010 at 8:18 pm
i live on lakeshore dr and we have lost 2 cats so far to these dog attacks. we’ve called animal control AND lakewood home association. i never heard back from lakewood and animal control said they couldn’t do anything unless we had the dogs confined somehow or in sight!!!! one looks like a mix shepherd and one a mix black lab. one of cats got dragged off the back porch and killed. one we just found a leg. they even tried to get in the house. FYI they’re not scared of people!!!
June 11, 2010 at 8:28 pm
wow, Lane, that’s serious stuff. check out this post i did earlier today — http://eastdallastimes.com/2010/06/11/reporting-dog-packs/. there’s another city service number to call, and they claim to dispatch animal control officer immediately. of course, there’s a catch, the number is answered only between 6-6, monday-friday. unfortunately, if an attack is in progress, there’s no humanly way they can be there in time.