Sunday 6 May 2012

When You Hear Hoofbeats In Norfolk, Think Zebras Wolves….

Barbara Reed, who is studying events management at City College, saw the animals after delivering pizzas at the campus.
The 25-year-old said it was the weirdest call to the police she had made.
She said: “I first thought, gosh they are big dogs. Then I thought, they are wolves.
“Two other drivers saw them so we called the police and they said they had been called already.
“I have never seen a wolf but it was light and I had a good look.
“I slowed down because they crossed in front of my car. They had pointed ears and bushy tails. They were very large.”
Pointed ears and bushy tails? Why, what else could they possibly be, but wolves?
When she arrived back at Domino’s on Colman Road, her two Hungarian colleagues reported the same sighting.
“One was waving his arms and being quite panicky about it,” she said.
Not a lot of Alsatians in Hungary then? Because that’s what they were…
Police said they asked the first caller to phone Norwich City Council’s dog wardens.
So the police didn’t think it likely they were wolves? Well, that’s reassuring. I suppose…
The second callers, the pizza drivers, were told by police the animals had been caught.
The council were phoned by a woman who said she had caught two Alsatians.
A happy ending? Well, only if you’ve got somewhere you can keep two large wol… sorry, Alsatians:
But a dog warden was not able to come out, as it was a Sunday.
*sigh*
A Norwich City Council spokeswoman said: “We were contacted on our out-of-hours number describing two Alsatian-type dogs that had been restrained on leads.
“The caller was advised that we do not operate a 24/7 lost dog collection service and anyone reporting and restraining a dog out-of-hours will need to keep the dog until our normal service is available to arrange collection.”
And if you can’t keep the dog? What are you supposed to do, release it and let it roam in traffic?

10 comments:

Laban said...

One Sunday morn, Bank holiday weekend, our seven year old came running in :

"There's a huge dog in the garden! With yellow eyes!"

He was right. One enormous Rottweiler - biggest I've seen. With some trepidation I approached him - he almost knocked me over but was friendly enough - collar but no name or number. Found some rope for an improvised lead and we took him round the village - no one knew him.

Council, NCDL, police didn't want to know - it was Sunday after all. We were driving to London that afternoon so couldn't keep him. They weren't happy when I said 'OK, I'll drive a few miles then let him go somewhere else', but none wanted him. Eventually I found a central police station that had a dog pound, put him in the car (he slobbered all over the seats!) and dropped him at the nick.

Mrs Erdleigh said...

Dances with Wolves meets Deliverance. :-)

Tatty said...

A member of the public had them restrained on leashes.

"Responsibility Assigned - TICK"

"Liability Negated - TICK"

Filed in the usual manner.

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, I know his one!

I read Inspector Gadgets 'Perverting the course of justice' lol. It's the result of 'Service Agreements'. The police would have taken them in days gone by, and still would for the most part, but daren't due to the fear of treading on some high-viz clad bureaucratic busy-bodies toes(it's their job even if they're never around to do it when it's needed).

It's the same everywhere. I , fondly, remember being dragged into the divisional nursing managers office one fine day after a foreign lady, with her six year old son neither of whom spoke much English, was admitted for overnight observation on a weekend. Social Services I here you cry - don't make me laugh! Out of hours? So I got a fold up bed and let him stay with her in a single room. Everybody happy, safe, well? Yep, well until 'the management' found out lol. You'd have thought I'd been beating him on the hour, every hour. Social Services were livid, but couldn't explain as they hadn't bothered to turn up, or even answer the multiple messages I should have dealt with a child with no other family, kick him out on the street?

Oh, and don't start me on my not being able to change a broken light bulb on the ward either!

I seriously think common sense has been bred out of the gene pool!

blueknight said...

Back in the day every Police Station had a kennel for found dogs. One cold night we decided to let doggie come indoors for a warm up. We went out on patrol but when we got back for food at 2 am we discovered doggie had pee'd on the floor and chewed one of the office chairs to death...... Next time we took the dog out in the van on patrol with us.

blueknight said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gibby Haynes said...

Students eating Domino's pizza? No wonder they rack up so much debt.

JuliaM said...

"Council, NCDL, police didn't want to know - it was Sunday after all."

As Tatty points out, it seems they regard possession - even temporary - as a deciding factor!

"I seriously think common sense has been bred out of the gene pool!"

Agreed. And I think it's deliberate.

"Next time we took the dog out in the van on patrol with us."

Probably a lot safer for the dog!

"Students eating Domino's pizza? No wonder they rack up so much debt."

Quite!

blueknight said...

Probably a lot safer for the dog!
Sounds silly but at one station we had a toy dog to put on the station desk to remind us that we had a 'guest'

David Gillies said...

Well this is Norfolk, after all. It's a bit of a dodgy proposition using phrases like 'gene pool'. Pretty shallow one, over-run with duckweed.