I have a bit of a situation that I would like some input from various users on how to handle.
My next door neighbour has a beautiful young husky/collie mix who they have told us time and again they dont have time for. She spends her days outside tied to a rope that runs along the side of the house in a space about 3 feet wide by 15 feet long, with a doghouse at the end.
We have been friendly with them, and with the
dog since we moved here in march, however I have noticed an upsetting trend that I feel needs to be resolved.
During the summertime, the hotests days recorded in this city in 25 years, it was upwards of 30 Celsius for a fair few days. We noticed that her water bowl was always empty and so we took to filling it for her, assuming that either she drank what was there, or it got tipped or some such issue.
Then a few weeks later we noticed that she was getting very thin, you could easily feel all her ribs and her hip bones protruded visibly. I was upset about it at the time but didnt know how to approach them so I settled with monitoring the situation and she did gain weight again.
Fast forward to now and she is beyond thin she is clearly emaciated. No normal human would look at her and think that she is a healthy animal. I am trying to remain objective and think that perhaps she is just not eating, or the family has some other reason why she is so thin. Regardless I couldnt watch her waste away anymore so tonight I went out and bought a bag of dog food. The poor thing was so hungry she was whining while she ate and only stopped to look up and lick me.
Now I know this family just had a new baby, so mom and dad arent working and they now have 2 small kids to take care of, the father has even mentioned to my spouse that they are almost broke.
I am trying my best to think of all the possible valid reasons for why this dog is so thin but I am just running out.
We are moving in 2 weeks and right now the plan is to find some way to ask if they would let us take the dog (they have made offhand remarks many times about taking her, which is why we are even considering it). At least then we could get her healthy and find her a new home.
If they wont allow us to take her then I feel that I wont have any choice but to call the animal protection society and file a report requesting someone go visit, but I dont want it to come to that.
So my question is, how would you go about having this conversation with the neighbour?
Do we ask if she has been sick? which warrants a reply of why?
Or do we just say something like, we know youve said a few times you dont have time for her, we were just wondering if you would let us take her when we move?
Its such a touchy subject, and I do know that people can have reasons for things, but to me this situation isnt getting better. We have witnessed this dog being held by the snout and punched in the face because she came to be petted etc.
Any help please?
It's SNOWING
