He unwittingly poisoned himself with kibble! People shouldn't leave stuff like that just laying around where animals can eat it.
He would probably do it again given half a chance.

Absolutely! Scavengers that they are, cat food and rotting road-kill are going to draw their attention too.

Set up the sting...left the dog in the backyard and watched him from the window.

Unfortunatly my timing was thrown off by his exit point being in a blind spot so I could not catch him in the act of exiting my yard. No matter, I followed him stealthly into the neiboughrs yard.

Within sniffing distance from my fence, under their shed is a small hole cut out of the skirting. Too small for your working line GSD heads to fit through, but plenty big enough for my pig faced/snipey retriever's head to get in. Perfect size for a cat.

Inside was a large empty bowl. I know they cut the hole for their indoor/outdoor cat, I have seen it around the shed lots.

Anyways it is empty now, and the neighbours are not home.

I would love to speak to them about having food out, but in the end it is my responsibility to keep my animal in my yard. A responsibility I take seriously.

At least it is not bear season (they love to eat pet food). I do worry about them feeding the rodents under the shed mind you. I am sure the fat cat can't eat all that kibble and eat all the mice eating the kibble

It just as easily could have been a bowl of mouse poison a non animal owning person put out, so I consider that I dodged a bullet on this one.

I am shoveling out the area so he can't easily jump the fence, but will think about making it higher there as he has had a powerful reward now Too bad the dog is not smart enough to associate the discomfort he felt last night with the cat kibble.

Anyhoo, mystery solved. Handler humbled. I never would have said "that would never happen to me"...but I never thought it would

 Quote: Jennifer Coulter

. . . At least it is not bear season (they love to eat pet food). I do worry about them feeding the rodents under the shed mind you. I am sure the fat cat can't eat all that kibble and eat all the mice eating the kibble. . .

Maybe when you talk to them, you could downplay the concern for your own dog and play up that aspect - attracting who knows what kind of nasty rodents and critters that could tangle with their beloved cat. Might be enough to make them stop making food readily accessible to anything.

 Quote: jennifer coulter

Anyhoo, mystery solved. Handler humbled. I never would have said "that would never happen to me"...but I never thought it would

ArgH!!! I've been following this story...SO so glad you've nailed it... (stealthly follower you!Heh! Got a lol on that visual :grin.

As for the never say never...never evernever evernever can we say or even *think* never with our canine buddies, at least in my experience. Glad you are seeing this in a relatively "harm free" way.

Edited by Michele McAtee (01/27/2008 09:43 AM)
Edit reason: never

I agree about the never say never thing. The older I get, I find the less I know...about dogs and life in general.

For those of you that have been following, leaving the dog in my yard is officially out of the question. I mean we work on a mountain and there is a tonne of snow up there, but the valley bottom snow is quite good this year too! The fence is pretty much gone as of this morning:
http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t214/farwesttoller/?action=view&current=backyard2.jpg

So now I have to go out with him. He doesn't mind:
http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t214/farwesttoller/?action=view&current=bobbingfororbee.jpg