2004-09-13 - 12:40 a.m.
"Do you have your Food Lion MVP Card?"
We got our Dogs back
And it cost us $400.00
I'm afraid that the animal control office is under funded, and has decided that the way to sustain operations is to rely on people's love for their pets to pay the bills.
If we had just walked in off the street and asked to adopt a pet it would have cost us about $50.00 per pup, to get ours back after a three day weekend cost us $200.00 per mutt. I think the reason for all that is clear: people won't pay that much to adopt, but
they will go sell blood to get their beloved pet back.
To make matters worse the shelter has a volunteer staff, so you really can�t complain to them, nor do they have anyone there who you can complain to. They told us to take it up with the county commissioner, as he is in charge of setting the rates.
Safe to say that we really can�t afford a surprise bill like that, but what were we going to do? Let them put our dogs down because we couldn�t afford to pay? Bastards! There is no earthly reason that we should have to pay more to get our dogs out of the pound than it did to adopt them in the first place.
$72.00 of that fee was to keep them there for three days, I told them that we called several times a day, every day that they were gone.
�You could have left a message�
No I couldn�t have, since when we tried it just kept shifting us back to the main menu.
�Oh, the mail box must have been full from the three day weekend�
Thanks, did I mention that both of the dogs had collars with our address and phone number on them?
�We weren�t sure what county they were from.�
I swear, that was the answer. What county they were from? Sweet Onion Chutney! What county did you pick them up in! Maybe you should start with that one!
Our church has stepped in to help us out, which puts us in an uncomfortable spot, more on that when I figure out what to do.
As if that day were not bad enough from the start, I then went to work out in Chapel hill on what should have been the last day if installation, and promptly stuck a chisel into the base of my thumb. I keep my tools very very sharp, and I usually follow my own advise of never putting your hand in front of a cutting tool as it could slip and become one with your hand.
It did.
Lots and lots of blood. I grabbed a near by paper towel, and that, combined with my shirt helped keep the blood off of my clients carpet. I walked out to the hall to go get my first aid kit and came face to face with said client, (who apparently isn�t too fond of blood) I excused myself and went down to fix myself up. At the car I realized that my first aid kit was sitting with my SCA gear at home, (Of Course!) and that I had left my keys upstairs.
Back into the house I go, my shirt completely soggy now, and now the hand is really starting to hurt. Get the keys, drive to the nearest Food Lion, try to walk in as if I�m not holding a blood soaked hand in my blood soaked shirt. And duck into the nearest bathroom. Wash out the cut, it�s really deep, definitely stitches, but the chisel went in at a pretty steep angle and I don�t think stitches would help anyway. It had already glued itself back together, but there was a lot of blood trapped under the flap of skin, so I peeled it open again, (yeah that hurt) rinsed it out really well, and then smoothed out the flap. Wrapped it in paper towels again and headed for the first aid aisle.
Grabbed antiseptic, telfa pads and gauze and went to go check out. The guy in front of me took one look and said �Please, after you� But the cashier, seeing my bloodied shirt, and the paper towel wrapped hand quickly soaking with blood, and the first aid supplies lying on the scanner, promptly asked, �Do you have you Food Lion MVP card?
That�s right America, children are the future.
Justus
