This adorable goofball follows me most mornings while walking my dog. The following me is not the issue, he is a mischievous jerk. There are a number of homes on our walk that have multiple unsecured dogs. They want to fight with him and he tries to play. He also walks in the road crossing whenever he feels like it.

But the worst issue is last week we saw there were chickens in a yard, and he went after them. I do not think he killed one, but I saw feathers flying for sure.

his story

I have named him Astro Jr, as he is the pup of one of my friend’s son’s dog. Someone in the neighborhood outside my (I have to walk through their neighborhood to get out of mine) adopted him. The owner never kept him in their house, or even yard. Astro jr has allegations of cat killings against him. The owner’s solution was to remove Astro jr’s collar and disavow ever having owned him. So he lives in the area of his old home, but currently has no owner.

There are a number of loose cats on our walk and he has never laid them any attention. Not saying that absolves him of the allegations.

Tl;dr he has no owner, but lives near my neighborhood. Animal control has been unable to catch him, so they stopped trying and ignore calls regarding him.

The last couple days I have tried to put a harness on him, he ran from that. Then I almost got a leash on him lasso style, again he ran.

I have tried squirting him with a water bottle, shooing him.

I am worried someone is going to assume he is mine and retaliate against me and my dog. Or he is going to hurt another animal, or he himself get hurt.

My dog on our walk. She is recovering from knee surgery.

  • Leon@pawb.socialEnglish
    2·
    15 days ago

    It’s wild to me that there are just dogs living outside. Can you just bring them home?

    • nocturne@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
      4·
      15 days ago

      Home to my house? Absolutely not, I already have 2 rescue dogs, and far too many rescue cats.

      • Leon@pawb.socialEnglish
        2·
        15 days ago

        I perhaps should’ve written “one” rather than “you.” I didn’t mean you specifically, but like in general.

        There are no stray dogs where I live. The times I’ve seen a dog loose out in the wild the owner is usually running after screaming and apologising profusely for not being able to control them.

        • nocturne@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
          2·
          14 days ago

          If you could get him to come with you, you most certainly could take him home. I have heard people have taken him home but he runs off and comes back to his old home.

          • Leon@pawb.socialEnglish
            2·
            14 days ago

            He’s so cute. I think I’m glad I live in a country that doesn’t have stray dogs. I’d really struggle to not just bring home all of them. Gods, all the fleas I’d have.