Ziggy was Dog-napped!

Sometime between 11 am and noon on Monday Ziggy disappeared. I had him and Luna and Farfel at my house out in the yard and while I was planting more snow peas he wandered off. I walked all over the woods looking for him, calling his name. I called my friend and he drove around town for a couple hours asking people if they'd seen him. After driving all over as well, I came home, walked back into the woods on the west side of the property. Nothing. Luna didn't react to anything either. At this point I knew he was gone, someone had to have taken him, or hit him with their car. I walked back to the house and I called the sheriff's department and then the local veterinarian around 4:30. No reports of little black dogs alive or dead.

I went back outside to walk the east side, took an old logging trail to the east of the pond, calling his name. I heard barking. I couldn't be sure it was him but it sounded like him. There's a nasty man living on that same street who had threatened to shoot Rocket more than once, waved a machete at me another time. He got a visit from the sheriff's department. I mention him because the barking came from the direction of his house. That was worrisome. I called Ziggy again and again and approached the back of his house from my woods. As I got closer the barking stopped, of course I worried that the creep was muzzling him. I went back to the house, got a leash and took Luna down the street. The barking started again and it turned out not to be the creeps yard but the yard next door. This guy whom I don't really know is a recluse, at least I never see him or his wife. At the end of a long black driveway is a 2 car garage. One of the doors has a cat door, and there is Ziggy inside trying desperately to get out through that tiny door.

I enlisted the help of the other next door neighbor and called Hal and my friend who also came over. This guy came out of his house and began ranting about my dog and all my "other dogs" and dogs in general pooping all over his yard rather than my yard, ad nauseum. At some point he realized that I do not own these other dogs that run amok nor do I live on his street. It seems he's referring to another neighbor's dogs, in fact the one who owns Farfel. He intentionally trapped Ziggy in his garage and hadn't decided what to do with him. (some of my friends think he was planning on either confronting Farfel's owner with Ziggy, or doing the "shoot, shovel, and shut up" thing after dark.)

Obviously, I do not like this newest creep in my life. He somehow lures my friendly little guy into his garage and left him there for hours without water. There was nothing in that garage to lure Ziggy in otherwise, the man has a cat door but no cats at all. After he sort of wound down from his ranting, he finally opened the other garage door and commented "lets see how much damage he's done" implying, of course, that I would be liable for it all.

Ziggy had destroyed the cat door and some insulation around it but nothing else was touched because Ziggy was more interested in getting out that door than anything else. Not to mention this garage was the cleanest, emptiest garage I had seen in my life. The man is anal in keeping it pristine. I can see why he's a recluse that no one seems to know much about. Being a decent person I offered to buy a new cat door, insulation and install it. I left with the understanding it would be fixed within 2 weeks.

But next morning at 8:30 am he shows up with a sheet of paper showing he had spent $40 on a new cat door and was going to buy the insulation. Hal met him at the door and a final sum of $50 was agreed upon. I haven't seen him since, I also haven't paid him. He can damn well wait those 2 weeks for the check or come get it if he wants it before then.