As I have stated before, I live in a relatively small (population wise) rural county. When I first moved here, I figured that there might be plenty of folks who liked to indulge in a drink or two (or more), but I didn’t think this was the type of place where there would be lots of drugs. In my mind, that was a big city issue. Boy, was I wrong! There is a very big methamphetamine problem here as well as opioids, and crack, cocaine, and ecstasy are also frequently in the news as well. And of course, we do also have our share of heavy drinkers. So when you deal with the public in an area like this, you never know what may happen!

The other day, our office got a call from a woman who said she had been walking in the woods and discovered a dog tangled in some vines and unable to get out. She also told us that it was in an area she couldn’t get to. So our Animal Control Officers (ACOs) grabbed some gloves, towels, and wire cutters and headed out. The woman had promised to wait there so she could show the guys exactly where this dog was. The ACOs hadn’t been gone for more than five minutes, when the lady called again. She wanted to know if someone was coming or not. She said she had been waiting “forever”. I explained that they were on the way, but they did need driving time (the address was about twenty minutes from our office). That alone should have clued me in, but it didn’t.

About an hour later the guys returned to the office without any dog! I had been standing by for a potentially injured dog, so I had to wonder where the dog was. The ACOs told me that when they got there, the woman hustled them back to the back of a fenced property that was pretty heavily overgrown. The woman told them the dog was in the vines in the overgrown area and that it had been crying the whole time she was waiting for them. Of course, it was quiet now. So one of the guys hopped the fence and started to look around. And guess what, absolutely no dog! In fact, there weren’t even any traces of a dog. No hair, no blood, no tracks, and no disturbed areas in the underbrush. When the ACO came back and reported that to her, the story got even better. Not only had the dog been caught in the vines “for hours”, but now his “friend” (another smaller dog, according to her) had been coming and going and checking on him! None of us are sure what she was on, but both the ACOs said she was stumbling and jittery, but on the phone (and in person, according to the guys) she sounded okay. Obviously whatever she was taking was giving her some pretty impressive hallucinations! Just another day in the life of a public servant! I’m sure some of you deal with the public, and have had some interesting experiences. Let me know your stories.