Dogs with bad owners

[blpurdom at yahoo.com]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Tabouli" <tabouli at u...> wrote:  
> My heart is wrung when I see big dogs moping all day in the one by 
> two metre spaces in the front of terrace houses while their owners 
> are at work.  There was one poor fellow I used to walk past every 
> day on the way to university who looked so lonely and miserable I 
> came quite close to letting him out and taking him for a walk, or 
> at least giving him a bit of company.  I suppose I could have 
> banged on his owners' door one night and asked if they'd let me do 
> this, or told them off for their neglect, but I'm a bit of a wimp 
> at that sort of thing...
 
You're not the only one.  My back-door neighbors have a rear "garden" 
one-third the size of mine which is nothing but concrete, a barbeque 
grill, a pile of old cinder blocks and an old fridge to which they 
are inexplicably attached.  They own a beautiful golden retriever 
which is very, very sweet and which is sentenced to spending every 
day in the rear of their tiny house in this 6x13' concrete hell-
hole.  He looks sad all the time, and whimpers frequently.  I've 
never seen them take him for a walk.  They leave his feces sitting in 
the alley that runs alongside their kitchen for days at a time, and 
their next door neighbor, a back-door neighbor of mine who WALKS her 
dog, aims her hose over the wall between their houses to clean the 
mess and keep down the smell.  

When my kids are playing in our garden, they like to go into the 
alley between the yards and talk to the dog through the gate.  He 
loves seeing them and is very friendly toward them.  It looks like it 
makes his day!  My other back door neighbor (with the hose) has 
talked to them about the way they treat the poor dog, but she told me 
it fell on deaf ears.  She's even offered to take the dog for walks 
when she takes her beagle, but they've said there's "no need."  (Mind 
you, this neighbor is 80 years old and can barely control her muscle-
bound beagle, so for her to offer this is quite generous.)  Some 
people should NOT be allowed to have pets!

--Barb