ohmidog!

ohmidog! correspondent Anne Madison and her beagle Spencer received a visit over the weekend from Baltimore’s finest — and by that we mean Animal Control — after a medical emergency required Spencer’s humans to leave him home alone for longer than usual.

Anne’s human companion, Greg, after falling ill, was taken by ambulance to Hopkins Bayview. Anne road along. She returned home briefly in the late afternoon to tend to Spencer then left again for the hospital. Greg was admitted and Anne got home after dark, in the rain. It was still pouring Saturday, so Spencer missed his walk and Anne again spent much of the day af the Hospital. Saturday evening, Anne returned home with Greg, who, though warned to start charting a healthier life course, was still ticking.

On Sunday, as Anne reports on her blog, they all settled in for a lazy afternoon when there came a knock on the door…

“I’m from Animal Control,” said the courteous young woman as she showed me her badge. “And the first thing you’re going to have to do is clean up all these feces.” I cringed. Two walk-less, scoop-less, rainy days can certainly make your yard look bad in the feces department. “We’ve had a bit of a medical emergency,” I replied. “But I’ll certainly take care of it. Was…there anything else?”

Of course there was. They’d received a call from a concerned neighbor who figured we were torturing a dog in here. “Ah,” I replied. “That would be Spencer. My husband has been in the hospital for two days, and the dog’s been here all by himself  for several hours on both days. He was probably lonely and upset.”

This was an intelligent young woman, and I will love her for her next question: “What kind of dog is it?”  As soon as I got out the word “Beagle,” her official face relaxed a bit. “I always ask if it’s a Beagle. They can sound like they’re dying,” was her reply.

Spencer and his dad were duly summoned from their nap. Spencer sat courteously while she inspected his license and rabies tag. She noticed that he’s microchipped, and when she’d seen what she needed, she had a pat on the head for him and an “It’s OK, old man.” We promised to scoop the poop, and that was it.

So all’s well that ends well. Praises to Baltimore Animal Control for checking things out, and praises to the young officer for knowing about Beagles. And the Dog House Girls are now in my cell phone in case this ever happens again.