Poisoned dog embarks on path to recovery

                Diana Farris told a reporter that she believes a steak was thrown over her fence that was laced with rat poisoning and that her dog, Cricket, ate it.

                Apparently, Cricket, a three-year-old miniature pinscher, and her mother, Pepper, a 5-year-old miniature pinscher were let outside when the two found the steak.  Cricket consumed more than her mother and became ill within a day or two of discovering the rat poisoned laced steak.

                Farris rushed her dog to the vet after she became ill and following blood tests, the vet determined that Cricket had been poisoned. 

                Headlines in the South Bend Tribune would lead readers to believe that the dogs were poisoned by someone with access to throw the steak over the fence. However, in the Tribune article, Farris stated that she did not see foot prints leading to the fence surrounding her neighbors’ houses, leading her to believe that the steak was thrown from a distance.

                Farris said in the article she knows that her small dogs are prone to bark.

                I know what it’s like to be a neighbor of a small dog.  My neighbors owned a small dog for about two doors named Cindy.  Cindy was a Cairn Terrier that had been a puppy when they adopted it. While I thought Cindy was a fairly good dog, she had a soprano bark which could cut glass.

                I remember lying in bed late at night or early in the morning and Cindy seemed to bark for hours.  No kidding, there were times at 7am on a Saturday morning when Cindy’s harp bark, similar to nails on a chalkboard, would cause me to think that a jury in the land would  convict if they only knew the agony I was suffering listening to this small, yipping dog.

                My issue with this article lies within the headline stating that the steak was thrown over the fence and stating in the article that Farris believes the steak was thrown from a distance. Either the culprit lives within the corners of Farris’s property or there is a random attempted dog killer on the loose in Niles.

                I think the one thing all readers can take away from this front page, local section article is that dog owners need to be more cognizant of what their pets are doing. Winter months are cold on animals, and I don’t believe they like to be left out for long periods of time, especially unattended.

                Pet owners need to take care of their animals and have respect for their neighbors. And neighbors need to voice their disapproval of barking dogs before it results in tossing a rat poisoned steak over the fence.