Due to circumstances, I am stuck in a situation in which I can not own pets. My neighbors have a dog though. He is everything you would want in a dog. Playfull, energetic, happy, smart, not an aggressive bone in his body. The sad truth is though, that his owners do not appreciate him. When he was old enough to survive the elements, they put him on a chain, in the back yard, they toss some food and water at him occasionally, and unless he manages to slip his collar and go running the neighborhood, they ignore him.

I try when I can to go out there and talk to him, pet him, I will buy him treats and toys. I have even been able to teach him a few commands. Given that he is not my dog though, there is a limited amount of stuff I can do for him though. They have had him for 3 years now, and untill this year he has remained healthy, and as happy as I can make him. In the summer his owners wouldnt give him much water, but my husband and I took turns giving him drinks of water out of the hose multiple times a day, since his "dish" which is a shallow frying pan with the handle tore off spilled too easily for it to hold water very long.

However this year he got really badly infested with ticks. My husband and I would go out there and pick them off every day, we bought medicine and applied it to him. We decided that the owners really needed to take a bigger part in the dogs care, we showed them the medicine, told them how and when to apply it. Weeks went by and still no improvement. Not only was there no improvement in the ticks, but now he had open sores at the ends of both ears where flies constantly swarmed around his head, and would feed. The feces that they probably had never cleaned since they got him only attracted more flies as well.

I kept trying to convince my husband to let me steal the dog and we would take it to the local SPCA. I figured with his temperment he would get adpoted within the time limit. However he is against stealing for any purpose. So my only recourse was to call the human department. After 6-7 calls and no signs of officers going to the residence, I finally called the police department, after looking up Texas state law and citing to them the exact sections of law they were violating. Within hours our neighbor was outside nailing a pan to the side of the dogs house for water, and racking up the feces. A few hours later I went to my back yard to check on Max, and he smelled like babypowder, and the swarm of flies that circled his head was gone, and I couldn't feel any ticks on his face anymore.

It has only been a few days since these changes, but I wanted to share this story becasuse some people call a shelter once, and leave it at that. If they dont respond, dont quit, that animal can't speak for itself.

Max's temperment before the treatment had gotten very strange. He became reclusive, and anti-social. He still wasnt aggressive towards me, but it got to where I wasn't trusting him anymore. I knew he was close to snapping, and animal can only take so much torment. THat is exactly what he was experiancing too was torment. It didn't take long for his own personality to resurface after his living situation was cleaned up, that I am happy for.