Inquirer: Dog gone! Neighborhood may be rid of trouble at last

This is a story of animal passion. It's a story of anger, homelessness, crime and exile. And it's a story of loyalty to a cause, where government agents are repeatedly foiled by nocturnal skullduggery, all in a subdivision where neighbor has been pitted against neighbor by a dang dog.

For months now, while the rest of us have gone about our mundane lives, the Kingston area has been rent by warring factions over a semi-stray, mixed-breed German shepherd who was never supposed to be there in the first place.

I don't know the dog's name. But because he has been such a pain in the Consolidated Government's backside and because he's often impossible to find, we'll call him "Chuck."

As you will read, Chuck's been causing plenty of trouble, but a truce may have been reached late last week. More on that in a minute.

Concerned Readers Maria and Ryan wrote earlier this month asking for my help.

"The dog sleeps, runs after small kids on bikes, attracts other strays and has brought division to the neighborhood," Ryan wrote. "You can't catch the dog because it's scared and runs the minute someone approaches."

"There are people who, against our wishes, built it a shelter and feed it in the neighbor's yard (with her permission). We live by a school and kids are terrified of this dog," wrote Maria. "It's been chasing people on bikes and doesn't like small children.

Its behavior has increasingly gotten worse."

So I started looking into it, and here's what I've

been able to find out.

Apparently Chuck was the companion of a local homeless man (no irony there). The homeless guy got on the wrong side of the law, was locked up and then let go with the understanding that he vacate the county. We'll let you go, as long as you keep going, in other words.

Chuck, meanwhile, somehow found a home of sorts in Kingston, where a woman put up a shelter for him in her yard and some other women drove about 35 miles a day, I'm told, to feed him. But that was not without problems.

Obviously, the dog was allowed to roam the neighborhood, scaring children and digging up people's yards, and doing those other things dogs do in yards.

So the neighbors called Animal Control, which is how Chuck became a thorn in the side of Drale Short, who manages the Special Enforcement Division for the city. For months now, Special Enforcement officers have been trying to catch Chuck. Officers roamed the area with a tranquilizer gun and they put out baited traps, but to no avail.

Apparently, Chuck's supporters were taking the bait out of the traps, then springing them shut. They were angry at the anti-Chuck faction for calling in the law and tempers on both sides rose.

It got to the point that there was a rumor in the hood and on social media that Mayor Teresa Tomlinson had put out a hit on Chuck.

Finally, late last week, someone managed to capture Chuck and take him to a vet for a checkup and all his required shots. Short said a new out-of-county home has been found for Chuck, so peace can return to the streets of Kingston, where children can again roam freely, without fear.

Unless there's a sequel: Return of Chuck.

Update

Unless they were drinking heavily at the time, readers will remember last week's visit to the trash-strewn back yard on Avalon Road. I called Short (yeah, same one) in mid-week to see what happened. She said one of her enforcement officers went out, determined there was indeed an enforceable problem and issued a summons to the guy living there.

He is supposed to appear in Environmental Court in mid February with proof that he has cleaned the yard up. As with all such cases, Short said she will send an officer over there a day or so before the hearing to check the conditions so he or she can attest to it in court.

As we say here at the rapidly emptying Inquirer Central, stay tuned.

Seen something that needs attention? Contact me at 706-571-8570 or mowen@ledger-enquirer.com.

This story was originally published January 25, 2015 at 10:14 PM with the headline "Inquirer: Dog gone! Neighborhood may be rid of trouble at last."