From: Pete Donahue 
Subject: visit from animal control officer
Fellow Federationists and friends,
Well my challanges with Tim took another unexpected twist yesterday
afternoon.  Ihad just returned from the store topick up some groceries and
doing some banking.  No sooner had I gotten home and gone to the bathroom
when I heard someone at the front door.  Mary answered the door and when I
came out of the bathroom she told me that the police were here and that I
had better go and talk to them.  But i actuallity the person she thought
was a police officer was in fact an officer with the San antonio Animal
Control sErvice.  He told me that he was asked to come out and check on
some complaints that they had received that I was abusing Tim by beating
him up and keeping him in a verysmall enclosure and they thought that it
was cruel to do so.  I welcomed the chance to talk with this gentleman and
cooperated with him in any way possible.  In fact I endouraged him to
dheck Tim out for himself and that I would answer any questions he had.
We talked about the things that they heard were happening and I told him
my side of the storry.  I think he was thrown off guard when I told him
that some of the difficulty I was having with Tim resulted from the fact
that I was denied the chance to find out about his past, il.E. not given
the chance to meat his raiser.  I told him that this would have given me
the chance to find out if his chewing things up went on all the time they
had him as a puppy or if it stopped after a while.  I also mentioned that
I had no idea of whether they had trouble with him relieving in the house
or if they did they diidn't think that was imnportant enough to report the
problem to the school.  I ws assurred that Seeing Eye rejects dogs for
traing with serious relieving problems, but the questions go un answered.
After examining Tim and asking me more questions about the problems we
were having he took down such information as the name of our vet, and the
Seeing Eye's information and chedked my identification he explained that
an animal that has been seriously abusee tends to be leary of all persons
and will cower when approached or will try to run away if they don't
launch an attack of their own, but Tim was exhibiting none of those
behaviors.  He assured me that I wouldn't have to worry about seeing him
there again and that all seemed ok.
I should mention that I talked to him about guide dogs and their training.
In fact at one point he got Tim so excited that he started jumping all
over the place and I needed to use a leash correction to get him under
control; something I was taught to do by The Seeing Eye.  As for the
confineed space I was keeping him in I believe they were referring to the
area near my bed whare he sleeps.  Due to his nature I still keep him on
tie-down at night or when we have company, or if we need to keep the doors
to the outside open for a long period of time such as when we're bringing
groceries in from the store, but he is by no means kept in that place all
day long.  Sometimes I chain him to a table in our living room if we have
guests over for supper so he dosn't have to be in the bedroom all by
himself, but so that can't rifle food     from the table or from the
kitchin counters; again something I was instructed to do by the school.
I believe that we're dealing with a problem in that some of my neighbors
have the idea that all guide dogs should behave the exact same way, but in
actual practice this is not so.j  They all remember how well-behaved
Ogden, my last dog was, and that it was un necessary for me to be
constantly corecting him as I must do with Tim.  The good news is that he
has been very well behaved all week long.  Let's hope that it stays that
way.  The raw hide toys that Tim played with are in the dumpster.Could
this be the darkent hour before dawn whare this situation is concerned?
Only time will tell.Please keep us in your prayers.  Thanks in advance.
Take care and have a good week.
Yours in Federationism,
peter donahue
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