During the time that I have worked at the shelter, I have had some very unusual interactions with the people who come in or contacted us, but some of the most unusual involve some strange illusions. Some of them have definitely involved drugs, but not always. The other day, we had a couple of middle aged ladies who came into our office, very upset, telling us that there was a dead dog on the road by the gate to the landfill. You have to realize that we share a very large piece of property with the county’s landfill, recycling center, and solid waste disposal plant. Being a rural county, there are plenty of places that either can’t get trash disposal or choose not to, so the landfill stays busy most of the time.

Both of our officers were out running calls, so one of our secretaries walked out to the gate where people come and go into the facility. Keep in mind that it’s probably about a half mile out to the gate and that it’s summertime in Florida, meaning the temperature is in the lower 90’s with a humidity of about 95 percent. Our secretary looked all over on the way to the gate and outside the gate and saw nothing! She finally walked back to ask the ladies to give her a better description of the dog and exactly where it was located.

The fact that Crystal couldn’t find the dog distressed the two ladies even more. One was crying now, upset that the poor thing wasn’t dead, but badly injured, and now we might not be able to find it to help it. The one who was not so hysterical described the dog to Crystal as a small black and brown dog that was lying right in the center of the road, just as you enter the gate. Armed with this description Crystal was about to set off for the gate again when she realized what the pair had seen. Up at the gate, just before you drive in she had noticed a large black bra that had fallen out of someone’s trash and was lying in the middle of the road!

Needless to say, everyone, especially the one lady who was so upset, was relieved. Poor Crystal was very hot and sweaty, but otherwise none the worse for wear. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that someone has mistaken dropped trash for a dead or injured animal. It was before my time there, but I recall hearing the story of how one of our officers chased a plastic grocery bag around on a windy afternoon because some customer swore that it was an injured or crippled cat! It’s funny what our brains can convince us we see. I really do have to wonder, though, if part of it isn’t their imaginations running a bit wild since there are still plenty of people that see the local municipal shelter as a “bad place” where we do awful things to animals.