there will be no new posts from oreo for at least ten days. after such a fun morn we loaded the dogs up and i went back to thank staff and volunteers. they did a swell job. going back to where hubby was waiting the car with the guys, my shoe caught on a crack in the path, and down i went with big boom we went straight to emergency and i collected stitches in my left knee, and an amazing number in my right hand. the fall was not related at all to the event, just a shady path with crack, stuff happens. thanks to nice man with the young lab who helped me up and brought ice to slow the bleeding . my hasband says thanks, he really appreciated you getting ice while he got the towels . it is apparent i am not a good left handed typist, so i can get your comments up, but this will be the last i try to type. sorry greta, hope you didn't wait long. took tons of pics but they will wait too. appreciate hearing frm you even if i can answer.
23 comments:
So sorry to hear about your accident. Have had a few walking my dogs as well. My thoughts and prayers are with you for a quick healing.
Don't concern yourself, I assumed something beyond your control came up. When you get better we can discuss my plan. I am glad the dogs had a swim before your tumble. I will be up next month, so stay out of trouble until then.
I looked for Burley and Priss, you must have left before we arrived. It was fun, but one little dog bit Riley on his snout. There was one woman that brought 5 dogs, that made me edgy. The huge brown dogs were great, one was therapy dog. Logensomethings. Heal quickly.
Sorry, get well quick. Check catmom when you can. They are still after KC
I saw a woman fall, didn't know it was you. We were going in, and I had both dogs. Rest it did look bad, I thought an abulance was coming. Get healed.
thank you all much, i can't answer all the mails right now, but they were read and appreciated. i had been wanting to lose weight and having to stand while eating with my left hand may do that. now i have true empathy for oreo, clumsy paws are not fun.
I hate to be the only wet sponge, didn't anybody else notice the dog in season ? Also, what was with the kids in the pool ? It was fun event, but they should have been told to get that dog out of there. I saw a pair of Landseers,tux style, in the pool, but nothing that looked like Oreo's pic. The Newf's were pretty outstanding; they had to be the ones from here. So, thanks to the SPCA for a lot of fun. I followed Oreo's advice and only took my own dogs. A public park with kids and water is not the place to socialize your fosters.
Get well !
We got there later. It was pretty packed. Mate walked around and sniffed butts, but Aussies are not really big on the water, he took a couple of laps. It seems like others on the blog, we were hoping to meet Oreo. My wife wanted a pawograph. Do you want us to stop posting til you mend ? The pic of Burley and Priss is sharp, if everyone hasn't viewed it full size they should. Those dogs are grinning. But no Oreo ? Explanation when you can type.
greetings from cripville,
oreo can't go because of her eyes, the tuxedos were our guys. We left early because of kids in swim suits getting in the pool. Oreo had phone conference with Tom Jacobs and the issues mentioned will be addressed before the next event. He is very conscientious, and in tune with what is going on.tired hand. more later.
I thought today was a meeting with staff. Were you able to go,and what happened ?I was sure I saw it somewhere on the blog,but now I can't find it. If they won't talk to you, people will start to use the wrong ways to get things done.
Not everyone shares Oreo's passion for protecting the county. If the county is protecting the overcrowding and turning away then I think the people who are pushing to expsose have a point. Being nice to these people isn't working from where we stand. Thanks for working so hard, but there needs to be some payback. They have to give a little.
Sorry, know you're sick, just ticked.
Take care!! and hope you are healing fine.
Oreo, this is off topic,but please check it out.My wife was reading the online RGJ and it was in the dog column as a press release.
"from shadowing an Animal Services Officer for a day to a flight in a Nevada Highway Patrol plane. Spa services, elegant jewelry, fine wines, golf galore and season tickets to the NBA Reno Bighorns are also available to the highest bidder."
I can see liability issues with a couple of those. Obviously the state takes a risk in transporting a civilian, even with a waiver. Yet, it is a state risk with a state plane. It would be "not a call unit" while carrying civilians.
Shadowing an Animal Services Officer is different. Are we taking the officer "off call" for this ? Will the following citizen become a witness? I am thinking of the lady who supposedly hit a dog in Spanish Springs, what if a citizen had been shadowing Animal Control That day?
In California it was illegal to follow any official vehicle (fire,cop,ambulance etc) to an incident. I know Reno and Sparks Police told my wife it was against policy, except for following an amobulance to a hospital and then the following car had to obey stop signs so what is the purpose.
If I call the dog pound on the yapping dog across the street, I don't want some nosy citizen in my business, same if someone calls on my cat. It is between me and the Animal Contol cop. Not a spectator sport. Let them auction off a day in the feral cat colony, not my private business with the county dog cop. How joined are the pound and the humane society? Why did the pound agree to this waste of my tax money? Nobody at the humane society returned our calls.
Time for a new post Oreo. I make more mistakes than you have and I don't have stitches, so unless you are in pain; go back to work.
Where I used to work did allow ride a longs, they were told to stay in the truck. We had 2 problems, they would get out of the truck and risk getting a bite before you could get them back in, and they discussed calls with their friends. The ugly calls had to be diverted to another unit, you can't take someone into a DV to pick up a half beaten dog. They stopped because it became to much of a drag on the system. I didn't read the story, but it is a bad idea for a door prize based on what S quoted. A ride along on a dog truck, they scrape road kill. Not a place for non employee types. Why not give them tickets to the Eutnanasia room so they can spout their opinions on that.
If it could educate the public, maybe. I believe there are better ways to do that though.The biggest risk I see is bites and taking some procedures wrong. My daughter, age 22 saw the dog catch pole and talked about it for weeks. We had to pull a cocker from behind a washing machine where it hid after being abandoned. It was scary to see and hear. The dog recovered and we found a home, I don't think my daughter ever did.
I say base the decision for ride a longs on the worst case scenario. An ACO never knows what they will find in the field. Dogs drug behind trucks, kittens tortured, now that I say that, if they are allowed, do a dummy route, and keep it short.
From the desk of Oreo!
Please hold any comments on this topic, ride alongs, until we get a new post up.
We see problems with the idea, but I want to hear both sides. I don't think it is a horrible plan, I just wouldn't put it on my short list of good ones. There are plenty of safe venues for public education, and letting someone get a false idea of the reality of Animal Services from a pretend experience, is nuts. If you get a rough call the chances for misunderstanding are huge, want to shoot a bite dog in front of a civilian, get dead day and they are overpaid. Anybody with a positive thought please share it, I may be missing something.
Oreo, my AC has allowed ride alongs for awhile. They rarely have anyone who wants to do it. They do sign a waiver and they are required to stay in the truck. If they get out, that's the end of it. AC did this mainly to address accusations and rumors so anyone that chooses to can see for themselves. That shut people up. And AC does take elected officials or their reps on ride alongs.
I feel it should be offered but people should be educated prior to the ride along. They should be told that they might see things that would have an effect on them. Forewarned is the word. I think that is why not many people take AC up on their offer.
Use in the right way it can be of service. It should always be available so people have the opportunity to "see for themselves". AC always offers this to the Whinonette types and none have gone.
I saw the ad for the silent auction prizes including the AC officer shadowing. It is not so very unusual for law enforcement to allow ride-alongs with officers especially police officers depending on the relationship of the person riding along. For instance, the Explorer program have agreements with PDs and Sheriffs Office that allow it. Sometimes they allow private citizens acting as community ambassadors to do ride-alongs.
As a humane officer, I did not want anyone riding along with me but my supervisors or fellow officers. My concern was that the uninitiated were ill-prepared to emotionally deal with what I did and saw on a daily basis. I didn't know whether I would be responding to a complaint about an emaciated horse and would get into an intense "discussion" with the owner, or be pulling a chewed up "fanbelt kitty" out of a car engine, or rescuing a hawk with infected compound fractures of its wing, or trying to find a container and faucet in order to provide water to a dehydrated dog tied in the sun. Other times, I spent the better part of the day doing quick physical checks on animals on animals I'd seen previously to insure corrections remained in place or calling complaintants to explain what I had done and would be doing in the future with the complaints they filed.
As a supervisor, ride-alongs were on a case-by-case basis. I had many requests but rarely allowed them for the same issues cited above. In addition, there are privacy issues with cruelty/abuse/neglect complaints. Folks being accused of such things usually don't like witnesses around. If I allowed someone to ride along, they had to sign an waiver for obvious insurance liability reasons and warning that anything they heard or saw was confidential--sort like the HIPAA
I suppose it was really all animal control could offer in support of the humane society at the event. By the way, it is not very comfortable to ride "shotgun" with animal control with all the equipment they carry in the cab. You can barely move with the computer, shotgun, and their various sundries.
I would suspect the day will be well-orchestrated to give the highest bidder a "fun and interesting day" and probably not very representative of a typical day. For instance,I doubt the officer will spend 2 hours in the parking lot of a 7-ll or Circle K drinking coffee while engaged in personal converstations on his cell phone like I've seen happening more than once.
Thanks for giving me the chance to express my opinion too.
I can appreciate all you said, Sgt. Doggett, up until the next to the last paragraph. The comment concerning a "typical day" for an ACO. I've known more than my share of ACO's and I know the days they have. They bust their asses only to be called names by some. There could very well be some ACO's who have this kind of "typical day" and if you have seen it, then report it and get back with us. Such a thing as an accessory to the fact. But trying to disrespect all ACO's with the "typical day" generalization is wrong.
Now I know why we are called
"blog moderator" Two great commenters and a difference of opiion. I think what Sarge indicates is , generally driving around in a dog truck is not to exciting. And I don't know about you, but we have had some pretty "social" drivers up here. I agree it is a hard job with a strong downside, but not everyone is good at self motivating...... When you see the dog truck parked in front of Denny's for 2 hours it is not open for debate if there is an abuse of lunch...
Lets not lose sight of the fact that the issue started out being the mindset behind the ride along..
Agreed, Happy Camper. In fact, the CEO of our county caught two officers in a "typical day". My objection is to generalize ACO's. I don't know about yours but ours have so many calls, they can't goof off. Also a log sheet is kept (computer) by the dispatchers and the results with time have to go by each service call. I also use these calls sheets to establish whether there are certain trends such as abuse, abandonment, etc. So our ACO's know that someone can come behind them and followup to see if they are indeed having a "typical day" or not.
Also the determination of the effectness of a spay/neuter program can be established by a reduction in service calls. So I have spend considerable time studying service call sheets from our AC. Our officers usually start the day with a backlog of calls from the day before. I don't see how they keep a sane mind, setting priorities, dealing with the public, what they see. Maybe that is a good reason not to allow ride alongs, so people can't see the madness.
Both you and Sarge had some very good points. Most ACO and Humane Officers take the job seriously, but sometimes I think a loose bolt rides to long on the wheel.. Cat mom has a great piece.. Go KCAS
I'm sorry if I offended anyone with my comments. In no way did I mean to come across as an elitist or belittling. Mea culpa.
I know some d@mn fine ACOs that do phenomenal work who are extremely underpaid. But, I've also worked with a few 100 ACOs both in the field and in a teaching capacity and have seen some that most definitely fit the description as lazy and noneffective who are paid far too much.
I truly respect the officers in my area with the exception of a couple who I have reported for both abuses of their position and authority as well as animal abuse (believe it or not).
I'm sure that dispatch will have predetermined call priorities for the high bidder though and the officer's day will be interesting to make it worth the monies paid.
Again, my sincere apologies to Oreo and the other posters for any misunderstanding.
No problem, Sarge. There's good and bad in everything including AC. I just felt the need to defend ACO's because I have known so many good ones and have heard tales of the bad ones. And I feel fortunate to be able to call the good ones my friends.
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