An Ode to Animal Control Officer Jeanine

I have so much to tell you guys about-- Christmas and the amazing gift my parents gave me. But I'll have to save it for another day when I have more than a couple of brain cells still functioning.

This post, instead, will be dedicated to Jeanine, the super-nice and super-agile animal control officer who saved my dog's ass tonight.

After a horrendous day at work today, all I had in mind when I came home from work was a shower and a beer and parking my butt on the couch for a while. When I pulled into the driveway, I was relieved to see that hubby was already home, and was leashing up the dogs for their walk.

As I got out of the car, Kelli saw something, probably a raccoon, and took off after it, nearly pulling Wil over. She took off into the woods, dragging leash behind her.

Sure enough, the dragging leash got tangled in the underbrush somewhere deep inside, and although we could hear her struggling, she couldn't get free. We dug around in the shed and found a pair if hedge clippers and while Wil started cutting limb by limb through 20 or more years worth of underbrush to try and locate her, I drove the car as far in as I could without tearing out the engine, trying to get a path started and a light on her.

She thrashed and whined and gasped for air, as her choker got tighter and tighter as she struggled. We talked to her calmly, even though we couldn't actually find her, and as she fell silent, panic set in. She was suffocating herself.

I ran next door and borrowed the neighbor's pole saw, but when we plugged it in, it blew the circuit, and we couldn't get it to work.

So, I called animal control and in came Officer Jeanine to save the day. She was small and mighty and weilded her machete like a pro, ducking and diving under prickly pepper tree branches with the skill of a cuban sugarcane farmer. In no time she had cut her way through nearly 50 yards of the gnarliest underbrush you can imagine. She cut Kelli free just in time.

I've always held the animal control officers in high regard, but now I have an even greater respect for them. So, thank you Jeainine. You saved my dog, spared me a heart attack, and totally made my kid's night with your flashing lights and fancy truck. We would have never freed her without you.