Definitely worth a 2nd & 3rd read and should be committed to memory whenever we have our dogs out in public.Originally Posted by rbr
This thread reminded me of an incident I had a couple of years ago. I'd loaded up the dogs on a beautiful spring day to train, but had to run errands first. Finishing up, I stopped by a strip mall to pick up a couple things our club needed for our hunt test the next day. I parked the truck and even though it was only 72 degrees out, left it running with the AC on just in case and ran in and grabbed what I needed. While in line at the check out, I overheard the clerk talking to the woman in front of me about how the cops were there because someone had left dogs locked in a hot car. A quick glance outside revealed a delegation of uniforms and people gathering around MY truck! I ran out and some woman was shrieking about how the poor dogs were dying. I'd actually noticed her earlier since she was sitting on a bench outside the store wearing a dirty aqua house coat and smoking a cigarette. I really had to bite my tongue not to give her a piece of my mind when she screeched to the cops the dogs had been there all day and am glad I kept my cool.
One of the cops had some gizmo he pointed at my window that he said gave him a temp. reading inside the car, and it registered over 100 degrees! Now bear in mind it was only 72 degrees outside and, I had my AC on. I opened the door and politely invited the cop to take the inside temp (also 72 degrees) and resisted the urge to whisper sic-sic-sic-sic to the sleeping Chesapeakes. I also produced a dated deposit slip from the bank a few miles away where I'd been 20 minutes earlier to refute the psycho woman's claim the dogs had been there suffering for hours. Because I was the HT sec., I realized how much trouble I could be in if I got ticketed for animal cruelty even if the charges were totally bogus, and how expensive/time wasting it would be if I got charged. So even though I was furious I was polite and helpful to the cops and said nothing to the freak that called them and once things were explained to them, the cops were OK although they warned me to be careful on hot days (as if!) These days you cannot be too careful--no matter how wrong the neighbors/complainers are, it's NOT worth the trouble of stirring them up.
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Imposing violence on these people is definitely not the answer. Outsmarting them is. It is easy to say how we would react when it's not us that's in the situation. Sounds like you handled it the best way possible.
