Yesterday afternoon I took the dogs down to the river for a walk. Kate stayed close while Duke ran off to sniff at anything he could find. About a third-of-a-mile into the walk I heard Duke yipping, yelping, and thrashing around in the underbrush somewhere to my left. I started running toward the sound thinking that Duke had been attacked by a badger or some other animal. When I got closer to the riverbank I saw him leap and twist in the air and then slam back down to the ground like something had grabbed a hold of him. I was now afraid that the animal he was fighting with was a snake. I got closer and saw it wasn't an animal that he was fighting but some kind of fence wire that he had stepped into and now had wrapped around his body.
When I reached him I began unwrapping the wire that was around his head and across his mouth. When I got the loop of wire out of his mouth I realized that the section of wire I had in my hand was attached to another wire. That section of wire was thicker and made of braided cable. With a growing sense of horror I realized it was snare used to trap small game and that it was cinched tightly around Duke's neck. There was a piece of round slightly bent metal that the cable threaded through. That piece of metal was on there to keep the cable from unlocking once the snare was pulled tight.
I tried to get my fingers under the cable to pull it loose but I could not. I reached for the round piece of metal trying to figure out a way to make it come loose. Duke just stood there and as my fingers ineffectively tried to find a way to loosen the cable a feeling of dread came over me. I knew in a few minutes I was going to watch Duke suffocate to death and that there was nothing that I could do about it. I wished I had a pair of wire cutters but at the same time I knew they wouldn't be strong enough to cut though the braided cable in my hands. Then suddenly my fingers managed to do something right and the cable slipped enough so that I could get my fingers under the loop and pull.
I pulled the loop of cable over Duke's head. I ran my hands around his neck searching for blood and found none. I was worried that maybe his throat would swell shut and I picked him up and started running back to where my truck was parked. Duke is normally a wiggle worm when you pick him up but as I ran he didn't move a muscle. I wondered if the bait that was in the trap was poison and ran faster. Finally I couldn't run anymore and I had to put him down. The second I did he took off running. Ok, he seemed to be fine. I jogged the rest of the way to the truck with the dogs following me. When we got there I loaded them up and quickly drove home.
I told my husband what had happened and he said he didn't think the bait in the trap was poison but that he wanted to go back and look at the trap. When we got back to the river I lead him to where I thought the trap had been. When we got to the spot two teenage boys came walking around one of the trees. The second I saw them I knew they were the ones who set the trap. I asked one them if that was their trap and he said yes. I quietly told him that he had almost killed my dog and he got a shocked look on his face. What happened next shocked me. My husband got right in the boy's face and started yelling and swearing at him for what he had done. I have never in all the time I have know my husband seen or heard him react like this. I don't know how much of it was acting or how much of it was real anger but he scared the hell out of those kids.
When he calmed down he told them he was taking them to the police because they were trapping illegally. They both meekly followed us back to the truck and climbed into the back. My husband told them if they did what he asked with out giving him any trouble he would not press charges. They agreed and we drove back to our house. When we got there the boys sat on our porch and waited as my husband called the police.
This should be the end of the story with Duke fine and the boys sent home with a warning but it was not. The boys were taken to the sheriff's office and something about them seemed suspicious to one of the officers. The police kept the boys there for five hours and finally got the truth out of them.
First, I thought they were about sixteen or seventeen-year-old boys but they weren't-they were both in their early twenties. Next, one of them gave us and the police a false name. This was because there was a warrant out for him under his real name. Finally, one of them was carrying a concealed weapon. Which means he had the gun on him when we met them down on the river.
I don't think we were in any danger down on the river. The fact that they meekly followed my husband's directions and then sat quietly on our porch waiting for the police leads me to that conclusion. My husband thinks they had the gun to shoot any animal they found in their trap that was still alive. As my sister said when I told her this story, the warrant could be for something as minor as a traffic violation. And twenty is still young enough to think you can lie your way out of trouble.
Still, I do think someone was watching out for us.
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