Monday, June 9, 2008

It's Hard To Make These Things Up

[Warning: The following story does involve some material that may not be suited for those sensitive to animals who, because of situations out of our control, might be harmed.]

Oh, the stories from my job. Even if you stripped away all of the personality quirks and uniqueness of working on a historical farm, you would still be left with the hard to make up animal stories. Most recently, I had the rooster incident. A little while ago there was the mystery of the vanishing buffalo. Today, we have the story of the possible rabid dog. [I say possible because the consensus amongst my co-workers is that the dog was, in fact, probably not rabid, just terribly, terribly angry/mean] This seemingly nice yellow dog was sitting by the front doors of the Welcome Center to greet all who tried to enter. It barked and chased away many, but managed to bite two of the visiting teachers who are attending the conference being held on site. Then, it successfully attacked one of our summer camp leaders, but luckily only managed to tear her dress. I began to panic slightly because in a few minutes approximately 30 camp kids (with siblings in tow) would be coming to register. Our caretaker tried to lasso the dog, but dislocated his shoulder in the process. Our director pulled it back into place. They managed to chase the dog down the road by throwing rocks at it. Animal control was called, but it was the local version of animal control, which consisted of a local farmer in his blue, slightly beat up farm truck with what appeared to be a dog carrying case in the back. I didn't have a lot of confidence in this method, needless to say. He was not successful in locating the dog. I scurried around, with a pocketful of rocks and a stick, making sure camp was situated. And then, walking back to the Welcome Center, I heard the gunshots--and the subsequent whimpering of the poor dog. There were two officers, a (seemingly) more legit animal control guy, and the first local animal control guy. They decided the animal could be rabid and shot the dog 3 or 4 times, I believe. However, they were not successful in killing the dog and it ran off into the neighboring fields after bleeding a bit by the front doors. Our poor receptionist cleaned up the blood. So, at this very moment, the dog has not been found and the health department seems very concerned about the teachers. Oh, and when the officers were at our site, they apparently got a call about 2 kids being bit by a dog at a local school. It couldn't have been the yellow dog at our site, so it makes me wonder what strange things are happening. A co-worker suggested werewolves? I don't know, it seems as logical as anything else that happens around my workplace.

**It should be noted that this dog never belonged to our site.

7 comments:

Thaddeus said...

Crazy! You should write the 'real' version of Old Yeller.

Jinx said...

Oh My GOSH!! You had a feral dog growling and biting people, and BEFORE calling animal control the decision was made to first try to lasso it, and then chase it away with rocks?!?! You people are CRAZY!! Also, if rabies was a possibility, wouldn't it have been prudent have the animal control people take a same of the dog's blood to be tested before putting the receptionist on blood detail.

LoL. Okay, I guess hindsight is 20-20, but still so much of this story is just ridiculously funny to me as far as the panicked mindset that apparently flooded the employees of the heritage center.

Jenette said...

I do need to clarify I guess. Animal control WAS called first but it was the Wellsville version and it took them awhile to get there. That was when the lasso came in (because the kids were coming)...

Jenette said...

Jared, also...the dog ran away before we could get the blood tested!!

Anonymous said...

That is the craziest story. I am glad that only the teachers got bit instead of the kids. In just a few days you won't have to worry about any of that anymore.

Thaddeus said...

I'm with Jennie! Down with teachers! Down with homework! Down with school!

Kellie said...

Only at the heritage center... What are you going to do for entertainment without it??