I always thought that should I ever have a problem, you were only a call away. Today I learned the hard way that this is, sadly, not the case.

As I left my house this morning, I was confronted by a brown medium- sized pitbull running unleashed down the street. His owner then appeared, out of breath, at the top of the hill. He was chasing his dog, leash in hand. His dig had gotten out of the house accidentally and was now on the loose. Animal control was called, and upon their arrival one officer walked around the park close to my house, while the other stayed in the truck. When asked if they had caught the dog, he said they had not, but they had looked. He also informed me that there was another dog, a large-medium size breed, black, running around the north end. About two hours later, still running errands, I came across this second dog, on Wyse Road. Animal control was called again. The dog then ran across Wyse Road, just getting across the street before being hit by a black truck. The owner of the black truck then got out, in the pouring rain, and tried to coax the dog into his car to save it from being hit. The dog became spooked and ran again.

Animal control was called again, to update them as to where the dog was now. They had already forgotten about the dog and needed his description again, and his new location. In the time that we sat and waited (with the two other vehicles that had tried to help), we didn't see one Animal Control truck, and we had seen two parked about five minutes away.

It really burns me that someone cared enough about their dog to call and report it missing, and that three complete strangers in the pouring rain made more of an effort to help this poor dog than the people who are trained and paid to do it. NEWS FLASH: this is Nova Scotia, it rains, get used to it. Also, maybe you didn't want to work on a Sunday... this is your JOB. People`s children play outside, people walk their dogs outside. When you get a call, get on it! I am very unimpressed with what I`ve seen today, and only hope that those dogs both made it home safely, no thanks to your department. PS: To the man and woman in the black truck who pulled off the road and tried to get him and to the woman in the red car who had also been following him before we saw him: THANK YOU. This city, and apparently the Animal Control department, needs more people like you! —Dog Chaser